After nearly convincing former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa to return to the BJP in a bid to shore up the party’s prospects in the southern state, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has now set his eyes on Jharkhand. Modi, the BJP’s election campaign committee chief, wants Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) leader Babulal Marandi to consider returning to the parent party.

Top sources in the BJP said Modi established contact with Marandi earlier this month when he was in Delhi for the party’s parliamentary board meeting. An emissary was deputed to prepare the ground and Modi spoke to Marandi over the phone, it is learnt. What transpired between the two leaders is not known but Modi wanted Marandi to return to the BJP, sources said.

Marandi is reported to have blamed LK Advani for “injustice” done to him and installing the Arjun Munda government in the state. It may be mentioned that Marandi has a clean image and his party has 11 MLAs and two MPs in the Lok Sabha after he parted ways with the BJP and floated JVM. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also wanted Marani to join the Congress but political compulsions in the state forced the Congress to join hands with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which had 18 MLAs in the state assembly.

With the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance, and Janata Dal (United) lending support from outside, looking solid in Jharkhand, the BJP is now desperately scouting for partners for survival in the state. Sources familiar with the developments in Jharkhand said the BJP with 18 MLAs and AJSU with 5 along with Marandi’s 11 will be a formidable alliance if they can cobble together a partnership. But it would be difficult for Modi to clinch this alliance since Arjun Munda, the former chief minister, is likely to stoutly oppose Marandi’s return to the BJP fold, sources indicated.

But with 14 Lok Sabha seats from the state being more lucrative in the immediate future, both parties are working hard to get the best possible alliance before the next general elections, scheduled for next year but which might come even earlier.