Party leaves nine seats for allies; Raja Peter disappointed as Tamar goes to AJSU
The Central Election Committee of BJP on Saturday came out with the final announcement on 11 seats, nine of which were allotted to the party candidates, two were given to the AJSU party as per its eight-seat pact and one seat has been left for its NDA partner lok Janshakti Party (lJP). With announcement of names of nine more BJP candidates the BJP concluded the total list with 72 party candidates for the 81-member Assembly.
Saturday's list includes names of Mahesh Singh for Mandu, Manish Jaiswal for Hazaribagh, laxman Singh for Dhanwar, Nagendra Mahto for Bagodar, sitting MlA Madhav lal Singh for Gomia, Ganesh Mishra for Nirsa, laxman Tudu for Ghatshila, Sadhu Mahto for Ichagarh and Manoj Nageshia for Kolebira.
The central leadership though gave rest to former JD(U) stalwart and sitting MlA from Tamar Gopal Krishna Patar as it allotted the Tamar seat to the AJSU party along with another seat Tundi out of its coalition quota of eight. The lJP was also given Shikaripara, the lone seat to be contested by the Ram Vilas Paswan-led NDA partner.
State BJP officials hinted that the decision on Tamar and Hazaribagh Assembly seats was a tough one given the fact that sitting MlAs from the seats were keen on getting ticket from the seats. Patar popularly known as Raja Peter is known to have a stronghold in his constituency and he has been credited with defeating JMM supremo Shibu Soren in the past. Peter had joined the party recently and was keen on fighting the polls from his traditional seat.
Disgruntled with the decision Peter, who bought nomination papers on Saturday, reached the State BJP headquarters in the evening and had a talk with State election in-charge Bhupender Yadav. The leader is said to have been pacified by Yadav and other senior leaders.
"They (BJP leaders) told me that they knew me as a social worker and popular leader of the region. They expressed their sympathy for me not getting the ticket and asked me to stay in the party for better future. I told them that the future of Jharkhand was the most important issue for me right now. I am going to my constituency now to seek opinions of the people there. Once I talk to my people I will decide what has to be done," Peter said indicating that he was willing to contest the polls from Tamar.
Congress MlA of Hazaribagh, Saurabh Narayan Singh, on the other hand, cleared that he never wanted a seat from the BJP to contest the Assembly poll. "Now things are clear that I am not going to the BJP. I had made the clarifications earlier also. But somehow people with vested interests from my own party managed to spread wrong message. Actually, there were people from the Congress itself who wanted to join the BJP and it was they who conveyed all these wrong messages to the people,” he said.
“I have already decided to focus on 2019 lok Sabha elections and I want to work for strengthening the organisational structure of the party. I have conveyed my message to the central leaders too. I am not interested in the present elections now but in any case I will follow what the High Command wants me to do. One thing is sure that I am going nowhere except Congress,” the young Congress leader said.