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AJSU Party’s Ganga Narayan joins BJP, likely to get ticket for Madhupur bypoll
All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) Party leader Ganga Narayan Singh on Monday joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), that was likely to field him from Madhupur assembly constituency to take on the JMM-Congress-RJD grand alliance’s candidate in the by-election scheduled on April 17
All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) Party leader Ganga Narayan Singh on Monday joined the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), that was likely to field him from Madhupur assembly constituency to take on the JMM-Congress-RJD grand alliance’s candidate in the by-election scheduled on April 17.
Election for this Assembly seat was necessitated after the demise of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) sitting legislator and minister Haji Hussain Ansari in October last year.
Singh, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 assembly elections on AJSU Party ticket from Madhupur, embraced the saffron fold along with his supporters in presence of BJP’s leader of opposition Babulal Marandi and other state leaders here at party’s headquarters.
The development was closely linked to the ensuing Madhupur by-election, nomination for which will begin from March 23.
In order to select its candidate, BJP’s state election committee on March 20 discussed on poll prospects of four probable candidates, including former minister Raj Paliwal and Singh, who has also applied for the party’s ticket. According to sources, the BJP will announce its candidate this week.
Former minister Raj Paliwal twice represented the Madhupur assembly constituency in 2005 and 2014. He lost in 2019 to JMM’s Haji Hussain Ansari. However, AJSU Party’s candidate Singh stood third in the 2019 election.
With Singh’s joining the BJP, party insiders said that it was almost clear that the party will drop Raj Paliwal and choose Singh as its candidate for the upcoming by-election.
They said the BJP wanted to keep NDA votes intact. “AJSU Party, which is part of the NDA, may not field its candidate this time. If this happens, BJP candidate will get party’s traditional votes and others as well,” the insiders said.
On the other hand, JMM-Congress-RJD grand alliance was all set to field late Ansari’s son Hafizul Ansari, now a minister in the state, as its candidate.
The grand alliance has taken a strategic move by elevating Hafizul Ansari as minister to give a message to the people of Madhupur that they will be voting a person who was already a minister.
Commenting on the grand alliance’s move, Marandi said, “Out of fear of losing election, the JMM made Ansari’s son as minister even before the polls. But, it forgot what happened in Tamar, where the then chief minister Shibu Soren lost the election. The same will happen in Madhupur.”
Speaking to media persons soon after joining BJP, Singh said, “I joined BJP to serve poor and downtrodden. Since my childhood, I admired Atal Bihari Vajpayee and now I am deeply impressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
