Eight sitting legislators in Lok Sabha fray in Jharkhand

Grand Alliance has fielded six legislators, while AJSU party, an ally in BJP government, has put its sitting cabinet minister for Lok Sabha polls. Two sitting legislators will have a direct fight in Giridih

Published on: Apr 13, 2019, 09:17:22 IST

Hindustan Times, Ranchi | By Sanjoy Dey, Ranchi

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Eight sitting legislators including a cabinet minister in Jharkhand’s Raghubar Das government are contesting the Lok Sabha elections in the state. The Grand Alliance (GA), a group of four parties-Congress, JMM, JVM-P and RJD, has fielded the maximum six sitting legislators, while AJSU party, a BJP ally in the government, and CPI-ML have fielded one legislator each.

MLA Geeta Koda (Diwakar Prasad/ Hindustan Times)

Under GA’s seat sharing deal, seven seats went to Congress, four seats to JMM, two seats to JVM-P and one seat to RJD. Congress party has fielded three sitting legislators, while JMM fielded two incumbent MLAs and JVM-P one MLA.

Congress’ former state president and Lohardaga legislator Sukhdeo Bhagat will contest the Lohardaga parliamentary constituency, while party’s Jaganathpur MLA Geeta Koda and Barhi legislator Manoj Kumar Yadav will contest from Singhbhum and Chatra respectively.

Similarly, JMM has fielded Saraikela legislator Champai Soren from Jamshedpur seat, while Dumri legislator Jagarnath Mahto from Giridih seat, where he will fight with AJSU’s Ramgarh legislator and state water resource department minister Chandra Prakash Choudhary.

JVM-P’s Poreyahat legislator Pradip Yadav will contest from Godda seat while CPI-ML’s Dhanwar legislator Rajkumar Yadav will fight for Koderma seat.

Political experts said putting sitting legislators in large number for parliamentary polls exposed the shortage of leaders faced by opposition parties in Jharkhand.

“A legislator’s identity is mainly restricted to assembly constituency, while a parliamentarian has a bigger identity. Currently, opposition parties are undergoing shortage of such leaders, who have an image at state or parliamentary constituency level. This is why, they find sitting legislators as suitable candidate,” said LK Kundan, associate professor of political science department, Ranchi University.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), however, denied that they were facing any crisis of leaders. “We have picked the candidates on basis of their popularity and aspirations of party workers. We don’t have any crisis of leaders,” said JMM spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya.

Echoing the voice of JMM, Congress spokesperson Kishor Nath Shahdeo said, “Several aspects, mainly winning chances and popularity, were analyzed before fielding the sitting legislators.”

Political experts have, however, said legislators, whether sitting or former, got preferences during selection of candidates in Jharkhand even in the past. BJP candidates Arjun Munda, PN Singh, Annapurna Devi, Sudarshan Bhagat, Bidyut Baran Mahto, Hemlal Murmu and Sunil Soren have served the Jharkhand assembly in the past.

Sitting legislators in LS fray

Sukhdeo Bhagat

Party: Congress

Assembly constituency: Lohardaga

Wins assembly by-polls: December 2015

Contender for LS seat: Lohardaga

Manoj Kumar Yadav

Party: Congress

Assembly constituency: Barhi