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Lok Sabha Elections 2019: AKMP leader turns nomination filing into token protest
Ranchi deputy commissioner-cum-returning officer Rai Mahimapat Ray and other staff present were taken aback as Pandey turned up to file his nomination papers along with 10 proposers clad with gamchas.
Independent candidate and Adivasi Kisan Mazdoor Party (AKMP) leader Anjani Pandey took the officers on election duty by surprise at Ranchi collectorate on Thursday, when he turned up with his supporters sporting gamchhas (towels) to file his nomination from the Ranchi Lok Sabha seat.
Ranchi deputy commissioner-cum-returning officer Rai Mahimapat Ray and other staff present were taken aback as Pandey turned up to file his nomination papers along with 10 proposers clad with gamchas.
Pandey (58) said it was a token protest against the government policies that made the farmers and labour class naked after 72 years of independence and his solidarity with them. The officials helped him to file his nomination and didn’t speak much.
It will be the fourth contest for Pandey, who runs several trade union bodies in the state.
“My struggle is for the helpless people – the peasant and labour class and uniting them for their rights. I will quit contesting Lok Sabha polls when I will bring 70 lakh of people on road, demanding their legitimate rights,” he said.
“The economy of the country is shaken, the middle class is suffering and the Prime Minister is taking credit of surgical strikes and firing missiles.” He lamented that the government has done little for the peasant and labour class.
He said the AKMP will contest four Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand - Lohardaga, Ranchi, Singhbhum and Giridih.
“In Lohardaga too, we had turned up at the returning officer’s office wearing gamchhas,” he said, adding that he had plans to come in procession at the Ranchi collectorate but could not do it as permission was not taken.
Pandey informed that AKMP will take out a huge procession at Chaibasa with women dressed in adivasi style when Pushpa Sinku files her nomination. The AKMP has fielded Sania Oraon from Lohardaga and Nikhil Soren from Giridih.
