Over 18 lakh electors will decide the fate of the first Chief Minister of Jharkhand and former State Social Welfare Minster on May 6, when Lok Sabha Assembly constituency will go into polls.
The seat will witness a tough competition between grand alliance candidate Babulal Marandi, the first chief minister of Jharkhand and chief of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and Annapurna Devi, former chief of RJD who joined BJP ahead of elections and was fielded by the party. Devi served as a Cabinet Minister in Hemant Soren’s government.
Babulal Marandi had won from the seat thrice consecutively in LS election 2004 and 2009 and bypolls of 2006, before being defeated by BJP's Ravindra Kumar Ray in 2014 elections. Meanwhile, this year, instead of fielding Ray for the second time, BJP decided to change the candidate and field Devi instead.
The Lok Sabha constituency of Koderma includes six assembly constituencies including Koderma, Barkatha, Dhanwar, Bagodar, Jamua and Gandey. A total of 18,12,085 voters have been identitied in the constituency, 9,58,523 male, 8,53,546 female and 16 third gender. The constituency has 24,584 first time voters as well.
The constituency reels under some major issues, both development and social, including pollution, drinking water crisis, child labour, child marriage and education.
A Koderma based activist, Onkar Vishwakarma said, "Lack of drinking water or pure drinking water in most of the area is the biggest problem in the constituency. There is a lack of clean drinking water in almost 80 per cent of the constituency but interestingly, the district received award in water conservation by the center."
Another activist Kedar Yadav said that people have to over a kilometre under scorching sun to fetch water every day. The water crisis has affected the constituency in such a way that several Birhor (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) families from the area have been forced to migrate.
Prakash Birhor, a resident said, "There area around 25 families in our tola but due to lack of water in the area, around 20 residents have left the district."
Child labour in mica mines has been another issue in the district for a long time. “The district administration, in a survey showed that there are no child labourers in mica mines but the reality is completely different,” Vishwakarma said.
He added, “Child marriage is also a major issue. At times the district administration intervenes to stop but despite efforts, it continues to occur.”
The MLA from Koderma, Neera Yadav, holds the position of education minister in the Raghubar Das cabinet. However, despite being the area of the education minister herself, the situation of education is not great in the constituency.
Prakash Yadav, an activist said, "The education system is in shambles. After the recent school mergers, private schools have got a free hand and are working as per their own whims and fancies without anyone to stop them. None of the private schools are following the the RTE guidelines of giving 25% reservation to BPL children, many private residential schools are running without registration. There are a lot of lacunas in the system which needs to be addressed."