The poll battle in Tamar is going to witness interesting contest as all three prominent candidates who are in electoral fray are related to each other in a very peculiar way. Vikas Singh Munda, the sitting MLA and son of late Ramesh Singh Munda, is contesting the election on Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ticket. Contesting against Vikas is Kundan Pahan, jailed CPI (Maoist) zonal commander and murder accused of Ramesh Singh Munda. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) in its investigation has found the involvement of Pahan in murder of Ramesh Singh Munda. Pahan is contesting election as an independent candidate.
The third candidate in Tamar electoral battle is former Minister Gopal Krishan Patar alias Raja Peter, who is also facing charges in connection with Ramesh Singh Munda’s murder case and is accused of helping Pahan in killing Munda.
The reserved constituency for STs, which comes under Ranchi district and Khunti parliamentary constituency, has remained hotbed of LWE members. The region despite bestowed with full of nature beauties has remained one of the economic backward regions of the State. The economic backwardness of the region has given scope to various LWE splinters groups operating in the region.
Sources said that all three candidates have influence at different pockets of the area. Sitting MLA Vikas Singh Munda in 2014 won the seat on AJSU party ticket, but later due to differences with AJSU party Chief Sudesh Mahto he started parting ways from AJSU chief. Months before the 2019, Assembly election his differences with AJSU party chief started widening and later he joined the JMM.
Former JDU MLA from Tamar, Ramesh Singh Munda in 2008 was addressing a function at SS High School, Bundu when he was killed. JDU leader Gopal Krishan Patar alias Raja Peter hogged limelight in State political circles after he defeated JMM supremo Shibu Soren in 2009 bye-election after the death of Ramesh Singh Munda. Everything was going fine, but in 2014 when JDU denied ticket to Vikas Singh Munda he contested the election as AJSU candidate and even won the seat.
Due to State police’s strict action against LWE members operating in area, banned Naxal group zonal commander Kundan Pahan facing over 100 cases including that of murder of senior police officers and carrying a reward of Rs 15 lakh on his head had surrendered before the police in 2017. The NIA later found the involvement of Pahan in murder of Ramesh Singh Munda.
Sources said that in due course of investigation name of former MLA from Tamar Gopal Krishna Patar alias Raja Peter also came to fore. On October 2017, the NIA arrested Peter in connection with the murder of rival MLA Ramesh Munda. It was alleged that Raja Peter had paid Rs 4 crore to Naxalites to eliminate Ramesh Singh Munda.
The area despite full of natural beauties with several waterfalls falling in the region has remained economically backward. Karthik Oroan, a resident of Bundu Bazar said, “The area has many scenic sites such as Dasham waterfall, Deori Temple in Tamar where cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni occasionally visits among others. But the region has remained economically backward as none of the Governments has tried to improve the economic conditions of people.”
Echoing the views of Oroan, another student Sukhdev Sahu said, “The main reason behind Tamar remaining backward than other areas in State capital is various LWE splinters group operating in the area.”
Tamar Assembly seat, which comes under Ranchi district and under Khunti parliamentary seat has 2,06,322 voters out of which 10,3,868 are male voters and female 1,02,454 voters. The millennial voters, who are in age group of 18 to 19 years, are numbered 4,336. The Assembly seat along with 19 other constituencies is going to poll in second phase of poll scheduled on December 7.