Jamshedpur parliamentary seat is set to witness a triangular fight among sitting MP Ajoy Kumar from Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM), Vidyut Baran Mahto from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Niroop Mohanty from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
While Mahto is a disgruntled former JMM MlA from Behragora, Ajoy Kumar, a former IPS officer is the sitting MP and JMM’s NK Mahanty, is a greenhorn in politics and former VP-Human Resource of Tata Steel.
The Jamshedpur parliamentary constituency has 15,51,297 voters and 1,626 booths. The Steek city will go to poll on April 17 to decide the fate of 15 candidates in fray. Presently, Jamshedpur lok Sabha constituency comprises the six Assembly segments--Beharagora, Ghatshila, Potka, Jugsalai, Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West.
Jamshedpur, having a large presence of urban voters, had witnessed 52.32 per cent voters’ turnout in the 2009 lok Sabha elections. The voting percentage in urban areas hovered between 30-50 per cent in the last few Assembly and general elections, while touching 60 per cent in rural areas. This time too, steps are being taken to increase the poll percentage.
In the 2009 general elections proving all political pundits wrong former Chief Minister Arjun Munda had bagged 3,19,630 votes while outgoing MP, Suman Mahto secured 1,99,957 votes. However, JVM (D) candidate and strongman Arvind Singh alias Malkhan Singh came a distant third with 79,089 votes and Shailendra Mahto, the AJSU candidate stood fourth with 37,400 votes.
In the bypolls in 2011 the former supercop Ajoy Kumar won the prestigious Jamshedpur lok Sabha by-election with a record margin defeating his nearest rival, Dineshanand Goswami of BJP, by 1,55,727. The by-election totally belonged to the former IPS officer who maintained his lead throughout the 23 rounds of the counting of votes.
The JVM nominee bagged 2,76,582 votes while BJP candidate garnered 1,20,855 votes. Sudhir Mahto of JMM stood third in the ranking securing 1,15,799 votes while AJSU candidate Astik Mahato had come fourth with 99058 votes. As the D-Day comes closer all the parties’ workers are trying their best to convince the people in their favour. According to a political analyst of the area, the fight would be interesting since all the three candidates are giving challenges to each other.
“The fight would be interesting. Vidyut is a veteran leader however Ajoy Kumar during his regime as the MP in last two and half years, did much for Jamshedpur. Besides, he is a respectable politician. However, the rising popularity of Vidyut can make him the dark horse,” said an election analyst.
Meanwhile, the city is agog with talks related to the elections. From tea stalls to joggers’ park, elections have taken over all conversations as a favourite topic in the city these days.
“Ever since the announcement of the elections, the talks doing the round are all about elections. I keep hearing people debating about the candidates in fray. The city is witnessing the heat of intense campaigning too,” noted Ramshwar Prasad, a tea-stall owner at Sakchi.
Nandini Sinha a student activist also said that campuses of the city are abuzz with talks on elections. She said though she cannot predict the winner but she wants that may the best candidate wins.
