With an eye on lok Sabha and Assembly elections, former JMM MP Shailendra Mahato along with his wife Abha Mahato rejoined BJP. The duo received primary membership of the saffron party at a simple function organised recently at Sakchi office.
Senior BJP leaders along with party spokesman Amarpreet Singh Kale and other office bearers of the Jamshedpur unit welcomed the couple.
Former JMM leader and former Jamshedpur MP Shailendra Mahato, has a considerable sway over the rural electorate, especially Kurmi voters. He resigned from the BJP stating that the party had betrayed him by not nominating as a candidate in the Jamshedpur parliamentary by-elections in 2007. His wife Abha Mahto, a two-term BJP MP from Jamshedpur, had also resigned from the party.
Though talk are doing around the couple has joined the party with a hope to bag party ticket but Mahato, who won MP elections in 1989 and 1991, claimed: “ We have joined the party without any hidden desire. We both just want to serve the party”.
Mahato joined BJP on January 7, 1996 after snapping ties with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha following the MP bribery case, of which he was one of the accused. Now he is gearing up to start new innings.
However, people close to him feel it difficult to predict the next step of Mahato. However, it seems that he would remain attached with BJP in near future and would like to make strong hold in the party.
Mahato, who was an accused in the JMM MPs' bribery case that hit the PV Narasimha Rao Government in the 1990s, began his career with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and won lS election on that party ticket. After quitting JMM, he joined BJP, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, Janata Dal (United) and AJSU before returning to the saffron party. Nonetheless, the two leaders have added that as of now the single point agenda would be to strengthen the party and spreads its vision in the society.