Jharkhand Assembly Election 2019: JMM hopeful to make debut from Palamu region

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is hopeful to make its debut from the Palamu region in the Jharkhand assembly election.

The regional party had never been successful from Palamu in the assembly polls and failed to open its account from the region in the past. Nine seats of Palamu region are voting in the first phase on November 30 along with four others — three from South Chhota Nagpur and one from North Chhota Nagpur regions.

The JMM was the runner-up from Manika and Latehar assembly seats in 2005 and came second from Chhatarpur in 2009 polls.

The party had fielded Kushwaha Sashi Bhushan Mehta from Panki in 2016 by-election that was necessitated after the death of sitting Congress MLA Bidesh Singh. Mehta conceded defeat by about 3,500 votes to Devendra Singh, son of the late legislator.

Manika and Panki have gone to the Congress’s kitty this time as per the seat-sharing agreement among the Opposition grand alliance partners along with Daltonganj, Bishrampur, Bhawnathpur and Lohardaga. The RJD is contesting Husseinabad, Chhatarpur and Chatra seats.

The JMM is contesting from Garhwa and Latehar in Palamu region and Bishunpur and Gumla (South Chhota Nagpur) this time.

The party has fielded Mithilesh Kumar Thakur from Garhwa and former minister Baidyanath Ram from Latehar reserved constituency and hopeful to romp home in both the constituencies.

Thakur joined the JMM a couple of years ago and was seen among people most of the time. He is giving a tough time to sitting BJP legislator Satyendra Nath Tiwari.

Ram switched over to JMM on November 10 and was allotted the JMM ticket the next day.

According to the poll pundits, JMM is in contest from both Garhwa apart from Bishunpur that is being represented by sitting party legislator Chamra Linda.

Party’s general secretary Vinod Pandey said the party will win all the four seats it is contesting in the first phase.

He said the victory is certain in Garhwa and Bishunpur and maintained that the party will wrest Gumla from the BJP that had been a JMM stronghold in the past. The JMM has fielded former party MLA Bhushan Tirkey who had won from Gumla in 2005 and was the runner up in 2014.

Former chief minister and JMM working president Hemant Soren has made several appearance in Palamu over the years beginning with his Sangharsh Yarta during the Lok Sabha polls and Badlav Yatra in August and September. He made three sorties during the assembly campaign and held 14 election meetings in Palamu seeking votes for JMM nominees besides the Congress and RJD candidates.