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Election fever rises in Jharkhand, PM’s rally in Lohardaga on April 23
Narendra Modi’s first visit to Jharkhand after announcement of Lok Sabha polls will focus on wooing voters of all three parliamentary constituencies — Chatra, Palamu and Lohardaga — going to polls on April 29
With poll fever rising in Jharkhand, political bigshots have lined up their campaign schedule for the state’s first phase elections at three Lok Sabha seats: Chatra, Lohardaga, and Palamu.
An official at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address a rally at Lohardaga on April 23, six days before the first voting on April 29.
BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said, “The PM’s programme is scheduled in Lohardaga, but we are yet to receive a formal plan of his visit. Details of the venue at Lohardaga such as ground capacity, parking, and traffic management were sought from the state BJP. We have submitted them all.”
This will be Modi’s first visit to Jharkhand after announcement of the Lok Sabha polls on March 10. The Prime Minister has visited the state twice this year. He last visited Hazaribag district on February 17, when he inaugurated and laid the foundation of 11 development and welfare projects worth ₹3,306 crore related to health, education, water supply and sanitation. Before that, he came to Palamu on January 5 to lay the foundation of the revived Mandal Dam project.
Shahdeo said that the prime minister would visit Jharkhand before all phases of polls — the state has general elections in four phases. Other top leaders of the party, including party president Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, Union minister of state General (retd) VK Singh, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, and Hema Malini would also come to Jharkhand for campaigning, he said.
BJP sources said that Amit Shah would address at least 10 rallies in Jharkhand across phases during the polls. VK Singh is likely to address a rally in Hussainabad on April 16, and Yogi Adityanath is likely to hold a public meeting in Daltonganj on April 20.
In 2014, BJP won all three parliamentary seats going to polls in the first phase. The contests have turned interesting in 2019, as BJP will have a direct fight with the candidates of the Grand Alliance, a group of four parties — Congress, JMM, JVM(P) and RJD — at the Palamu and Lohardaga. At the third seat, Chatra, there will be a ‘friendly fight’ as well since RJD has fielded a candidate though the seat was allotted to the Congress and a party nominee is in place.
BJP has fielded its incumbent parliamentarians from all three seats — VD Ram from Palamu, Sudarshan Bhagat from Lohardaga, and Sunil Singh from Chatra. The Grand Alliance has fielded Congress’ Sukhdev Bhagat from Lohardaga and RJD’s Ghuran Ram from Palamu. At Chatra, RJD has fielded Subhash Prasad Yadav, and the Congress has nominated Manoj Yadav.
More than 44.55 lakh voters would elect their representatives to Parliament from three Lok Sabha constituencies this year. Of the total voters, 23.51 lakh are male, and 21.04 lakh are female voters. A total of 55,599 first-time voters aged 18-19 years would play a significant role in the three constituencies.
