Two young faces became members of Jharkhand Assembly today after newly elected Dumka MLA Basant Soren and Bermo MLA Jaimangal Singh took oath Wednesday. While Basant Soren is JMM youth wing president, Jaimangal becomes the youngest MLA from Bermo.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s younger brother Basant Soren, in a close contest, defeated former minister and BJP candidate Louis Marandi, while in Bermo Congress candidate Kumar Jaimangal Singh (Anup Singh) was successful in retaining his father and six times MLA Late Rajendra Prasad Singh’s legacy defeating BJP candidate and former MLA Yogeshwar Mahto Batul.
Congress candidate Kumar Jaimangal defeated Batul by 14082 votes, while in Dumka where the prestige of JMM was at stake, Basant Soren defeated Louis Marandi by 6,842 votes. At the special session of Jharkhand Assembly called to table the Adivasi Sarna religious code, the two newly elected lawmakers took oath.
Both the newly MLAs reached the Jharkhand Assembly at around 12.30 noon in the same car. Anup Singh was driving the car, while Basant Soren was sitting adjacent to Anup. Basant after taking the oath greeted Chief Minister and his elder brother Hemant Soren and other lawmakers. Jaimangal after taking the oath took blessing from Chief Minister Hemant Soren and parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam.
With Basant Soren winning the bye-election, one more member from the Soren family has made a successful entry in electoral politics. In Soren family party chief Shibu Soren is JMM’s Rajya Sabha member, son Hemant Soren is Chief Minister, daughter in law Sita Soren MLA from Jama. Sources said that though Basant is new in electoral politics, he has worked hard in strengthening JMM as youth wing president. As a youth wing president, Basant had worked hard in enrolling more and more youths in JMM fold.
For 42-year-old Basant, this will be his electoral debut in an election although he contested Rajya Sabha polls in 2016 as JMM candidate and lost.
Similarly, though Jaimangal Singh is new in electoral politics, he is one who has remained with father late Rajendra Prasad Singh for decades learning the electoral nitty-gritty from his father.
A senior Congress leader requesting anonymity said, “Jaimangal Singh remained with father as his shadow. When late Rajendra Prasad Singh's health deteriorated it was Jaimangal who looked at all the works of Singh, meeting people and addressing their issue.”
The bye-election on two seats was necessitated as chief minister Hemant Soren vacated Dumka constituency after registering victory from two seats and retained Barhait. Bermo fell vacant after veteran Congress legislator Rajendra Prasad Singh died of illness in May.