Tuesday, May 31 2005 08:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ranchi: A day before United Progressive Alliance (UPA) convenor Stephen Marandi convened a meeting of the alliance, Jharkhand Mukthi Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren yesterday (May 30, 2005) ruled out party candidate and his son, Durga, retiring from the June 3 Rajya Sabha elections in favour of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

''This is democracy, and the JMM is the largest Opposition party in the State Assembly,'' Soren said when asked whether he would consider retiring his son from the race to let a straight contest between the RJD'S Muktinath Upadhyay and National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Digvijay Singh.

While the RJD has been refusing to withdraw its candidate as it left the seats to the JMM twice earlier, the JMM is adamant on the seat saying it was vacated by Stephen Marandi who was with the JMM when he contested the seat for the upper house last year.

The one member Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML)-Liberation has already announced to abstain from voting in the 81-member (excluding nominated MLA) house.

The UPA convenor and former deputy Chief Minister, Stephen Marandi, who earlier said he had quit the JMM for "family politics practised by Guruji (Shibu Soren)", called a meeting today (May 31, 2005) to iron out differences, which came to the force over the Rajya Sabha elections.