Jharkhand Assembly Election 2019: Former CM Babulal Marandi to contest from Dhanwar
Jharkhand Assembly Election 2019: There were speculations of Babulal Marandi choosing to contest from a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Santhal Pargana, where he started his political career. However, Marandi has again decided to contest from an unreserved seat.
Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) chief and former chief minister Babulal Marandi would contest from his home constituency Dhanwar assembly seat in Giridh district, the party announced on Tuesday, putting a full stop to speculations about the assembly seat he would be contesting from.
“The central election committee has released candidates for nine more seats, taking the total number of candidate whose names have been announced to 62. Party chief Babulal Marandi will contest from Dhanwar,” said Vinod Sharma, JVM-P vice-president.
Marandi would file his nomination papers on Friday, a party leader said.
There were speculations of Marandi choosing to contest from a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes in Santhal Pargana, where he started his political career. However, Marandi has again decided to contest from an unreserved seat.
This is the second time Marandi would be trying his luck from Dhanwar, which is home to his paternal family Kodaibank under Tisri block. In 2014 assembly election, Marandi had emerged second and lost to sitting legislator Raj Kumar Yadav by over 10,000 votes.
In 2014, Marandi had also contested from Giridih assembly seat and emerged third from the seat that was won by the BJP.
With announcement of Marandi’s candidature from Dhanwar, the constituency is all set for a repeat of 2014 contest as the three main players — Rajkumar Yadav, Babulal Marandi and Lakshman Prasad Singh — in the previous election would again be locking horns against each other.
While CPI (ML) has named sitting legislator Yadav as its candidate, the BJP has announced candidature of former IPS officer Singh who emerged third from the seat in 2014 polls.
Yadav had polled 50,634 votes against Marandi’s 39,922. Singh had secured 31,659 votes in the constituency that witnessed voter turnout of 63.64% in an electorate of 2.7 lakh votes.