With voting day for the Ranchi Municipal Corporation elections just a few days away, the 500-odd candidates for 55 wards and 14 mayor- wannabes have upped the campaign ante and are leaving no stone unturned to charm voters.
But while they chalk out strategies based on population details such as education levels, economic, social and local issues concerning the area etc; voters too, are scrutinising their past performance and weighing future prospects. And one factor that is getting most weightage is the contestants’ educational background.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” said Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela. And affirming this adage are many of the aspirants for the mayor’s and councillors’ posts. Going by the information furnished in their nomination papers, these candidates possess a wide variety of academic ‘qualifications’ ranging from doctorates to plain vanilla graduates. But how far they change the cityscape is anybody’s ‘educated’ guess.
Among the mayoral aspirants, Devi Dayal Munda is a legal eagle with an llB degree under his belt, while the Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch-backed Naveen lakra holds a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) degree. The graduate gang includes outgoing mayor and Congress candidate Rama Khalkho, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ajay Tirkey, Shiv Kumar Kachchap and Renuka lakra.
Managers too, are making their presence felt in the race for the mayor’s post. Social activist and scribe-turned-politician Ratan Tirkey, 45, holds a post-graduate diploma in Personnel Management, as does his rival Arun John Prawal, who is a retired senior manager from a nationalised bank.
However, matriculates and intermediates have formed the largest chunk of the candidate pool, with aspirants like Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-backed Antu Tirkey, Janata Dal(U) leader lokesh Khalkho having studied till class 10 while AJSU’s Varsha Gadi and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-backed Sanjay Toppo having completed their class 12.
Another matriculate Vijay Tirkey had to drop out of the contest as his nomination was rejected. Durga Oraon, however, stands out for his knowledge of all things activist, despite having studied till Class 8 only.
The councillor candidates too, are a motley bunch of tech-and media-savvy professionals, school-dropout housewives and even students still in college. While some of these people have drunk glassfuls from the fountain of knowledge, others have just gargled.
Take Chanda Devi, a candidate from Ward 43 for example. The reticent housewife herself admits to have studied only till class 7. In complete contrast is 62-year-old Jainendra Prasad, a former engineer of the Heavy Engineering Corporation, and candidate from ward 28. Then there is media-savvy Aafreen Naaz of Ward 47, an MBA, ex -employee of Tata Consultancy Services, and lalita Mukherjee of Ward 19,who is a graduate and Human Rights activist.
Also in the race is 25-year-old Ramesh Pandey, an intermediate pass candidate from Ward 25, whose ambition and confidence belies his physical disability.
Amid this ‘educated’ lot are two college students who also want a taste of real-life learning. Ward 54 candidate Suneeta Kachchap is studying in BA part 1 at Doranda College; while Sweety Kundu of Ward 13 is a student of BIT Mesra, and the youngest candidate in the fray.
How these contenders utilise their educational prowess – or the lack thereof—to solve their voters’ problems remains to be seen, but the issues they have chosen to focus on gives an interesting preview of things to come. While lokesh Khalkho puts “Roads, drinking water, improved public transport and shelters for the homeless” at the top of his list, Rama Khalkho is banking on past performance to tide her over.
lalita Mukherjee is focussing on law and order and strengthening of local organisation, while Jainendra Prasad is harping on family values.
Cleanliness at all levels and places is suddenly the buzzword, with Durga Oraon focussing on a ‘clean’ corruption-free RMC besides cleaning up the city; and Ratan Tirkey targeting hoardings and banners with lingerie advertisements “to build a ‘clean’ society”, as he puts it; besides the mayoral staples of “Beautification of Ranchi, a proper drainage system, better public transport and effective solid waste management”.