Full of rancour, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) is banking heavily on the showing of Sunday’s poll which would prove a make or break situation for the Babulal Marandi-led party. Troubled this time thanks to its defectors, the party had homed as many as five seats pushing its tally up to 11 in the elections five years ago.
Adamant to maintain the tempo, the JVM has fielded candidates in all the 15 constituencies under poll in the fourth phase but one Nirsa and hopes to control the damage as much as possible. This has prompted even party chief Babulal Marandi to file his nomination from Giridih seat where he would be up against his old ally and MlA Nirbhay Shahabadi.
Nevertheless the strong turf, what was once considered for the party, the region has now turned into an Achilles’ heel. All its MlAs representing the seats for the JVM have parted ways and now been fielded by its rivals against it. Phoolchand Mandal from Sindri, Dhullu Mahto from Baghmara, Nirbhay Shahabadi from Giridih, Samresh Singh from Bokaro and Chandrika Mahatha from Jamua are seating pertly in opposition camps in 2014.
“It is a challenge as besides the candidates the JVM had gained due to resentment among BJP cadres then. With a resurgent BJP task of garnering similar kind of support this time would be difficult. It is especially a problem as most of the JVM voters were at some point of time connected with the BJP,” said a JVM general secretary admitting the predicament the party is faced with.
The party has lost Phoolchand Mandal, Dhullu Mahto and Nirbhay Shahabadi to the saffron party while Samresh Singh is flexing his muscles once again from Bokaro as an Independent. Chandrika Mahatha has been given ticket by the JMM from Jamua.
“There is no doubt that the defection has made the dent most on the seats falling in the region. It is not that the names with us were big but the sympathy with Babulal Marandi which had made them MlA for five years. Now they have a tag of sitting MlAs and backing of the BJP. Our loss is the BJP’s gain in the coal belt,” said the leader privately. BJP could manage to win just one seat of Jharia in 2009 out of the 15.
Moreover, the party has fielded Sitaram Bhuia against Dhullu Mahto, Israil Ansari against Samaresh Singh and BJP’s Biranchi Narayan, Rekha Mandal against Phoolchand Mandal and Satya Narayan Das against Chandrika Mahtha.
“We have not given up. But it is a fact that the party is largely depending on the Babulal Marandi’s charisma who still holds stake in the region. There are lot of issues on which the JVM has been working such as displacement, compensation against farmers’ land and loot of mineral resources. We are trying to capitalise on those issues,” said party’s senior leader Praveen Singh.
The phase is the most crucial for the party as it would have to go for a fierce battle at JMM bastion Santhal Pargana next where it had won just two—Maheshpur and Poraiyahat in last elections. Thankfully, both the MlAs namely Mistry Soren and Pradeep Yadav are the only two who are still with the JVM!