Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Transfer of alliance partners’ vote crucial for candidates in Giridih, Dhanbad

Four Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand are voting in the sixth phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on May 12. Of these, a transfer of votes could decide the fate of candidates in Giridih and Dhanbad constituencies.

In a direct contest that is brewing in Giridih and Dhanbad Lok Sabha seats between NDA and grand alliance candidates, transfer of core votes of alliance partners could decide the fate of contenders in the electoral battle on Sunday, the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections.

Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha with Kirti Jha Azad, the party candidate from the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat, at Dhanbad district, Thursday, May 9, 2019. (PTI)

In Dhanbad, though 20 candidates are in the fray, the principal contest is between BJP candidate PN Singh and Congress nominee Kirti Azad. Both the BJP and Congress have entered into political alliances in the state and are banking on support of their partners to sail over troubled waters.

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In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP candidate PN Singh received 5,43,491 votes and won by a massive margin of over 2.93 lakh votes against Congress nominee Ajay Kumar Dubey who got 2,50,537 votes. But this time, Congress has stitched up alliances with Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (JVM), Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC), who had jointly received over two lakh votes in 2014.

But it has to be seen how much both the fronts are able to garner their respective alliance partners’ votes in their favour on Sunday.

“When two parties are engaged in a direct contest, the success only depends on the ability to shift their core votes to their alliance candidate. All parties have their own base of voters and alliance politics works on basis of transferring a party’s support base to the alliance partner. Of course transfer of votes would decide the fate of candidates on Sunday,” said Dr Pramod Pathak, political analyst.

AJSU is facing a similar situation in the Giridih parliamentary seat. AJSU candidate Chandra Prakash Chaudhary is locked in a direct contest against Jagarnath Mahto of JMM. In 2014, AJSU had fought alone and got over 55,000 votes but this time it is allying alliance with BJP and banking on the saffron party’s vote bank. BJP’s Ravindra Pandey got 3,91,913 votes from Giridih in 2014.

Though BJP has taken a risk by handing over the Giridih seat to AJSU, the party has spent considerable resources to project Chaudhury as NDA’s face in Giridih. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari have both campaigned for Chaudhury. AJSU also enjoys the support of JD(U), which polled a little over 40,000 votes from Giridih in 2014.

JMM candidate Jagannath Mahto, who lost from Giridih in 2014 by over 40,000 votes, is depending on the vote bank of alliance partner JVM (P), which polled over 57,000 votes in the previous Lok Sabha election.