Ganga Narayan Singh, the BJP candidate for Madhupur bye-election on Tuesday filed nomination paper in presence of senior BJP leaders at Madhupur. Ganga’s nomination was attended by BJP state president Deepak Prakash, BJP legislative party leader Babulal Marandi, Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, BJP national vice president Annapurna Devi, former ministers Louis Marandi, Randhir Kumar Singh and others.

State BJP president Deepak Prakash targeting the State Government said, “The present Government is indulging in appeasement policy. The State Government’s double standards reflect that on one hand Government bans Ramnavami procession, while on other hand the funeral procession of minority community is attended by hundreds of mourners.”

Connecting with voters, the BJP president said that Madhupur which is part of Deoghar district is land of Lord Shiva. Lord Rama had performed puja of Lord Shiva at Baba Baidyanath dham by offering Lotus and Ganga jal. “Both Lotus and Ganga Jal are in this land,” added Prakash.

The BJP president also targeted the State Government for its anti women and anti-farmers policy saying that the present Government had scrapped welfare schemes such as Mukhyamantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojana, under which farmers were to get Rs 5000 per acre of land. He also targeted the State Government for scrapping the scheme, which made registration of immovable property worth Rs 50 lakh in the name of women free of stamp duty save for a token amount of Re 1.

BJP legislative party leader Babulal Marandi also speaking on the occasion targeted the state government for its anti developmental policies. He said, “The JMM/Congress/RJD alliance had announced government jobs to youths but even after passing of more than one and half years the state government has not even initiated a step in this connection.” Marandi too targeted the state government for indulging in appeasement policy by making JMM candidate from Madhupur Hafizul Hasan as minister without his election to Assembly.

The BJP Central Election Committee on Thursday evening announced the name of Ganga Narayan Singh as party candidate for Madhupur bye-election. Singh, on March 22 switched sides from AJSU party joining BJP. Singh files the nomination on the last day of nomination. The polling will be held on April 17, while counting of votes will be held on May 2 the day on which counting of votes for the assembly election in five states will be held. 

On Thursday (March 18), the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Hafizul Hassan’s nomination filed nomination at Madhupur in presence of senior JMM, Congress and RJD leaders.

Sources said that the Madhupur bypoll will be litmus test for State Government as elections are being held after one and half year of Soren government coming to power.

The battle of Madhupur is different from two others by polls as the seat has been held by both BJP and JMM on earlier occasions. In 2005 and 2014, BJP candidate Raj Paliwar won the seat while JMM Haji Hussan Ansari had won the seat in 2009 and 2019.