Marandi resumes alliance talks with Congress

New Delhi: The Congress party is likely to enter into pre-poll alliance with rebel Bharatiya Janata Party leader Babulal Marandi for the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections.

Marandi who heads his own political outfit Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) reached New Delhi on Saturday morning to resume talks between the two parties.

Talks had earlier stalled due to the JVM leader's refusal to play junior partner to the Congress party.

Marandi, the first Jharkhand chief minister, had earlier demanded that his outfit must contest 40 out of 81 seats and that he should be projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the combine.

The JVM leader held a long meeting with Ahmad Patel, the powerful political secretary of the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday and Sunday.

Sources close to Patel say they have more or less agreed to the modalities of the alliance and a formal announcement will be made soon.

"It is just a matter of three seats now, which can easily be resolved. Marandi wants to settle for 30 seats while we have offered him 27," said a central office bearer of the Congress party. The first of the seven-phased Jharkhand elections gets underway on November 25.

Besides, Marandi has also agreed to the Congress proposal that they should put the leadership issue on the backburner and ensure victory of the combine.

Marandi joining hands with the Congress party completes the full circle for the 41-year-old leader, currently a member of Lok Sabha from Jamshedpur.

He dabbled briefly with the Third Front which was being projected as an alternative to the Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during this year's Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress joining with Marandi's JVM also signals that UPA would not contest the elections as a single unit.