The Congress party has dumped its old allies in the coming assembly elections in Jharkhand and found a new ally in former chief minister Babulal Marandi, formerly of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The Congress has decided to contest 55 seats and leave 31 for the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajantantrik (JVM-P) of Marandi, who was chief minister from November 2000 to March 2003.
Two seats have been given to another party. 'We will have friendly fights in five to seven seats,' a Congress leader said.
A formal announcement of the alliance is likely to be made Thursday or Friday.
Marandi quit the BJP in 2006 and floated the JVM-P, which won 10.5 percent of the votes in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
The two earlier allies of the Congress were the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The Congress-JMM alliance has snapped after six years.
The Congress and JMM fought the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha and the 2005 assembly elections together.
The Congress has also dumped independents who were part of the government of Madhu Koda, who is now embroiled in one of India's biggest corruption scams.
The JMM will contest the November-December elections on its own. The RJD wanted an alliance with the Congress but the latter was not interested.
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