State joins poll battle today; four seats, three heavyweights
All the former Chief Ministers — Babulal Marandi, Shibu Soren, Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda and incumbent Chief Minister Hemant Soren — are keeping their fingers crossed as the voting opens for four of the 14 lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand under the watchful gaze of around 40,000 securitymen who have already fanned out in the Naxal-hit areas.
Though the electoral battle tomorrow will decide the fate of heavyweights like BJP state president Ravindra Rai in Koderma, former DGP V D Ram in Palamu and former IPS officer Rameshwar Oraon in lohardaga, but the outcome will also decide the future of the former and serving chief ministers in the long run as they have exercised every weapon in their armoury like never before to remain relevant in the Jharkhand politics.
While Marandi and Soren are locked in a fierce battle in Dumka, Munda has been instrumental in picking up candidates in several constituencies and leading the poll campaign from the front. The result in Dumka will seal the fate of either of the two satraps-Marandi and Soren. Moreover, the decision of Marandi to go it alone in the elections will come under scrutiny after the results are out.
Besides, Hemant Soren has also put the JMM future on stake after it agreed to offer nine seats to the Congress. The JMM is not fighting anyone of the four seats going to polls tomorrow. Instead, the Congress is fighting three seats-lohardaga, Chatra (Dheeraj Sahu) and Koderma (Tilakdhari Singh) and the RJD one i.e. Chatra (Manoj Bhuiyan).
Madhu Koda, who holds the Chaibasa seat, has allowed his wife Geeta to contest this time. According to insiders, the BJP candidates are in contest at all the seats. Out of the four seats, the BJP holds lohardaga. While Ravindra Rai is struggling hard to regain Koderma, represented by his one-time mentor Babulal Marandi, former DGP Ram will try to wrest Palamu from the JMM, held by reformed Maoist Kameshwar Baitha.
Incidentally, Baitha is fighting on a ticket from TMC, which has joined the electoral battle in Jharkhand in a big way. Mamata Banerjee's party has also put up candidate in lohardaga (Chamra linda) and Chatra also.
Chatra is witnessing an interesting battle as the candidates from the big parties have been branded an 'outsider'. BJP's Sunil Singh is locked in a battle with Dheeraj Sahu of the Congress and Nagmani of the AJSU. The seat was held by Independent Inder Singh Namdhari who has chosen not to contest this time after the BJP did not give him the ticket.
Meanwhile, compared to last polls, security scenario looked better this time. The 2009 general elections had begun on a violent note in Jharkhand when six policemen had been killed in latehar a day ahead of the electoral battle began creating a fear among the voters and demoralizing the policemen.
"This time we are in complete control of the situation and confident about conducting the elections peacefully in the first four constituencies," said DGP Rajiv Kumar.
Kumar said that measures like area domination exercises, long-range patrolling and recoveries in order to build up confidence among the voters to come out and exercise their franchise were on in full swing.
State police spokesperson Anurag Gupta said that the securitymen are better placed this time. "We hope there will be huge turnout in all the four constituencies given the voting trend in Assam and Tripura," he maintained.
Gupta said that he had no information about the boycott call given by the Maoists. "If it is there, it might be the handiwork of the rivals of a particular political party," he said.
It was true that the Maoists were not able to create any trouble so far but the candidates and parties were apprehensive. "It is the responsibility of the Election Commission as well as the State administration to ensure free and peaceful polls," said former Chief Minister Arjun Munda.