Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has betted on old war horse of electoral politics and its state vice-president Hemlal Murmu to fight the littipara bypoll, slated for April 9.
The decision in this regard was announced on Monday by State BJP general secretary Deepak Prakash.
“The party has decided to field senior party leader and vice president Hemlal Murmu as a candidate for littipara Assembly constituency. He will file his nomination papers on Tuesday,” said Prakash.
Tuesday is the last day for filing nominations and with BJP naming Murmu and the JMM getting support of all the parties in the Opposition, it has been reduced to a direct fight of the two. Just one Independent in the form of Dr Shrilal Kisku, a qualified doctor by profession, has filed his nomination papers till date.
Against all the talks about naming its candidate, the JMM kept the matter under wraps till filling of the report. Party leaders maintained that Hemant Soren would go to Dumka on Tuesday to witness nomination filing and the party nominee may be declared there only.
It is learnt that after the BJP making clear, the tribal party may even bet for Simon Marandi or his son since there is no chance of the saffron party pouncing on any of the family member of its deceased MlA Dr Anil Murmu in order to play sympathy card.
Notably, Murmu has been a veteran of Santhal Pargana politics and represented Barhait assembly constituency but had switched to the saffron party just before the lok Sabha polls in 2014 after having a fairly long stint with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Party insiders say that couples of other names were also into the fray but Hemlal Murmu’s experience and his past poll performances clinched the deal in his favour.
Though Murmu has not won any of the two elections he fought on the BJP ticket since his induction but his performances were worthy of another chance. In the lok Sabha elections, Murmu as a candidate of the party for Rajmahal constituency lost to JMM’s Vijay Hansdak but got polled 44,958 votes in the littipara Assembly segment that falls within it. Important to note here that Hemlal got nearly 20,000 votes more than Dr Anil Murmu, who had fought the election as the JVM nominee then in littipara area.
Hemlal has been representing Barhait sssembly constituency and was again into the arena from here during the general elections held for Jharkhand Assembly about six months after the Parliamentary elections. Nevertheless up against none other than executive president of his parent party and former deputy chief minister Hemant Soren, he fared poorly.
“Our candidate (Simon Marandi) was polled 42111 votes in Assembly polls at littipara but lost to Anil Murmu (67194 votes) in Assembly elections in 2014. The number of votes was similar to what Hemlal Murmu got as lok Sabha candidate in that segment. If we can add-on some more votes this time then we can win the bypoll,” said a senior leader of the BJP.
The seat undergoing poll due to demise of sitting MlA Dr Anil Murmu has been in JMM’s pockets for last over 20 years. Moreover, the BJP besides, its recent poll performances in other parts of the country is also banking upon ‘anti-incumbency’ against the JMM over there. At the same time, internal feud involving both the widows of the late legislator—Uniquey Udoro Hansda and Nisha Sabnam Hansda—is likely to make things a bit easier for the BJP.