The Jharkhand unit of the Congress party will ask chief Sonia Gandhi permission to enter into an electoral tie-up with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, JMM chief whip Theodore Kiro told rediff.com on Monday.

"The people are well aware of the misrule of Chief Minister Arjun Munda. We feel the tie-up among our party, the JMM (and the Jharkhand People's Party) will benefit us," Kiro said.

He pointed out that during the last assembly polls in the state, either the Congress or the JMM was in the second position in 54 of the hilly state's 81 total seats.

Significantly, senior Congress leaders like Oscar Fernandes, Mukul Wasnik and Iqbal Singh visited state capital Ranchi in the bid to assess its political situation in the second week of March this year.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi too was present when the party's three central leaders confabulated with their Jharkhand counterparts, including Kiro himself, Bagum Sumbror (deputy speaker in state assembly) and party legislator Phurkan Ansari.

The Congress, JMM and JPP leaders later continued the discussion at Kiro's residence after which the Congress unit was asked to prepare a blueprint for jointly fighting the elections.

JPP working president Mukesh Baba told rediff.com that he thrice met Iqbal Singh at Punjab Bhavan to work out the details of the proposed electoral tie-up.

"The dominant feeling among all of us is that the NDA state government has failed to deliver the goods to the people who are looking for a credible and effective replacement. We feel that we can provide the replacement," Baba pointed out.