Parliamentary battle at Dhanbad often revolves around personalities and people who are closely associated with the working class perceived as messiah by thousands of labourers engaged in mining industries. The uniqueness of Dhanbad lies in the fact that tribal centric issues take back seat, whereas labour welfare comes to forefront alongwith caste factor.
The coal capital of Jharkhand has been a BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) stronghold since 1991 with the party bagging the seat five times in last six General Elections with the exception in 2004 when the wave of anti-incumbency helped the Congress snatch the seat from the saffron brigade. However, much water has flown in the river since 2004 as the Congress’ winning candidate of 2004, Chandrashekhar Dubey, switched side and joined Trinamool Congress recently.
In the meantime the Dhanbad seat once again went back to NDA fold in 2009 Election when PN Singh defeated the popular labour union leader, Dubey.
Interestingly, the half a century old issue of underground fire in Jharia and other parts of Dhanbad looks engulfed by the demands pertaining to education industry. The sitting MP has also set eyes on Koylanchal University, status of IIT to Indian School of Mines which has quite often forced students of the institution to take the path of agitation and rehabilitation which is as vague in scope as ever. Priorities apart the BJP is counting on Modi magic to widen the margin of win in the election.
“People are in favour of Narendra Modi. The UPA has failed on all front and people want to teach them a lesson and with the Modi wave we are going to set a milestone in this election,” said BJP’s candidate for Dhanbad PN Singh.
The BJP, however, needs to overcome the challenge put by the stalwart of labour union politics and the TMC candidate. The labour union leader is trying to ride the anti-Congress wave and sail through the election with flying colours. The outspoken leader has embarrassed Congress with direct remarks against Congress national president Sonia Gandhi and Vice-president Rahul Gandhi since he was shown the door by party high command. But Dubey seems to have no answer to Modi which is evident by his over obsession with Congress’ supposed anti-people policies. The disgraced former labour Minister of State government is banking on more on the failure of Congress than issues in General Election of 2014.
“The Congress has become more corrupt than ever and in this election people will teach them a lesson. Those who talk about Modi wave are detached from ground reality and they will come to know about it after elections,” maintained Dubey.
Nonetheless, the Congress believes that social welfare schemes rolled out in UPA’s ten years reign are enough to win back the seat of Dhanbad and prevent Modi juggernaut from decimating their candidate.
Even as labour welfare remains at the heart of politics in Dhanbad, parties that used to represent the proletariats symbolized by coal mine workers failed to increase their base in urban pockets where the national parties have fortified their position in last 24 years. The Marxist Co-ordination Centre, which is known for labour politics has not moved beyond the Nirsa Assembly Constituency.
Former Chairperson of Jharkhand State Women Commission, Hemlata S Mohan, is counting on the tenure as the head of the commission to woo voters of the coal belt. Mohan who is contesting on AJSU Party’s ticket believes that women emancipation achieved during her tenure will be translated into votes in this election.