In a rat race between ruling coalition (JMM and Congress) and Opposition BJP over switching leaders from opposite camps in State, the opposition BJP suffered a jolt as BJP MLA from Mandu seat Jai Prakash Bhai Patel joined the Indian National Congress (INC) ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Patel who may be fielded from Hazaribagh Lok Sabha constituency joined the Congress in the presence of AICC in-charge of Jharkhand Alam Gir Alam, Jharkhand Congress chief Rajesh Thakur, Jharkhand Minister Alamgir Alam and party’s media and publicity department head Pawan Khera. Patel dumping BJP assume importance as day before Sita Soren the JMM Jama MLA and daughter-in-law of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren joined BJP after serving ties with JMM.  

Patel, who represents the Mandu assembly seat in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh, said he wanted to fulfil the dreams of his late father Tek Lal Mahto, a former MP, and made the switch because he had been unable to find a reflection of his father’s ideology in the NDA.

Patel also praised Rahul Gandhi for leading the Bharat Nyay Jodo Yatra and expressed confidence that the opposition’s INDIA bloc will win all of Jharkhand’s Lok Sabha 14 seats. “I have joined the Congress not for any greed or post but for ideology and to fulfil the dreams my father had for the state,” Patel said.

A Congress leader said JP Bhai Patel could be fielded as the party’s candidate from the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat that has voted BJP’s Jayant Sinha in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP has already declared Hazaribagh MLA Manish Jaiswal as party candidate from Hazaribagh seat. Hazaribagh has remained a traditional bastion of BJP as the party has represented Hazaribagh in Lok Sabha for more than two decades. However, after Patel switching sides to Congress camp, the battle of Hazaribagh becomes interesting as the region has a sizable population of Mahto voters, the caste to which Patel belongs.

Patel contested and won his first assembly election on a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket after his father, the sitting lawmaker, died in 2011. The JMM fielded him again in the 2014 state elections and he won.

But Patel switched sides to BJP in October 2019 ahead of the state assembly elections and scraped through, winning the seat with just about 21% vote share as compared to 34% vote share in 2014.

The BJP on Wednesday claimed that its MLA from Mandu in Jharkhand Jai Prakash Bhai Patel joining the Congress would have no impact in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Calling the Congress a “sinking ship”, state BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said his party has a cadre-based organisation and it doesn’t matter who comes and goes.

Jharkhand will go to polls in 4 phases from 13 May to 1 June. The results of the Lok Sabha election will be declared on 4 June.

In the four-phase election schedule, constituencies that will cast votes on 13 May are Khunti, Lohardaga, Palamu, and Singhbhum. On 20 May (Phase-5), polling will be held in Chatra, Hazaribagh, and Kodarma. On 25 May (Phase-6), votes will be cast in Dhanbad, Girdih, Jamshedpur and Ranchi. And, on 1 June (Phase-7), voting will be done in Dumka, Godda and Rajmahal.