The election for two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand is getting interesting by the day. While in one seat the victory of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren is sure, for another seat the contest is going to become bipolar between BJP candidate and party State president Deepak Prakash and Congress candidate Shahzada Anwar.
In its effort to garner necessary support for Rajya Sabha elections, Prakash on Sunday met rebel BJP leader and former Minister Saryu Roy at his residence. Roy the independent MLA from Jamshedpur East defeated former Chief Minister Raghubar Das in last Assembly election. Roy accompanied by BJP Chatra MP Sunil Singh, Bokaro MLA Viranchi Narayan and others urged Roy to support Prakash.
Prakash said, “Roy is our very good friend and we have our association since RSS days. He positively assured me of supporting in Rajya Sabha election.” Roy’s association with RSS is for more than four decades as he started his political career as RSS pracharak. Sources said in Roy’s victory from Jamshedpur East against Raghubar Das, the seat Das had represented for five times, RSS cadres played big role. Roy association with RSS can be gauged from the fact that in January when Roy visited Maa Vindhyavasini Mandir Vindhyachal Dham (Mirzapur) he met RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat. Though Roy termed the meeting with Bhagwat as merely coincidental, but it was talking point at state political corridor. Sources said that the BJP leadership is using the influence of RSS to bring Roy for supporting Prakash.
The BJP state president said that apart from Roy, BJP is expecting support from other legislators and the party is confident of victory in Rajya Sabha election.
Sources said that Prakash victor is sure as the party has already crossed the magic number. For Prakash’s victory the party requires the support of 27 MLAs. The party already has support of 26 MLAs including Marandi. The two AJSU MLAs have already announced to support Prakash. Moreover, former BJP leader and Barkatha MLA Amit Yadav too had announced to support Prakash.
Prakash enjoys a close relationship with J.P. Nadda right from the time the BJP national president’s father, N.L. Nadda, was vice-chancellor of Ranchi University from August 1978 to April 1980. Apart from closeness with Nadda, he also enjoys good rapport with Babulal Marandi. In 2000 when Marandi became first Chief Minister of State, Prakash was made the chairman of Jharkhand State Mineral Development Corporation Ltd.