When over 50 lakh voters step out to vote on Tuesday to select over 17 of their representatives besides politics, emotions would also be on surge. Electors of the Assembly constituencies such as Barhi, Barkagaon, Hazaribagh, Dhanwar and Ichagarh would have to take into consideration more than one issue while voting.
Three constituencies, namely, Barhi, Barkagaon and Ichagarh have three ladies into the poll fray who have been labeled as "victims" at some point of time. The tag, some way or the other, has also played significant role in securing tickets for them as well.
Among the 14 aspirants into the arena at Barhi, notable name is of Sabi Devi, wife of slain Tileshwar Sahu. Sahu was the member of the AJSU party before being assassinated and his wife Sabi Devi had good chances to fill into his place. Though, the seat went into the
BJP fold in the understanding reached between the two and the JMM sniffed the chance to play emotional card by fielding the lady. The saffron party has nonetheless a strong candidate in the form of sitting MlA Umashankar Akela but having been pitched against the card it may prove vital for him. "It is a factor but the Congress and JVM candidates would cut into her votes. It would make things easy for me," said Akela in his brief reply. Congress has named its OBC cell leader Manoj Yadav from here.
Similar is the case in Barkagaon where wife of Congress sitting MlA and jailbird Yogendra Sao, Nirmala Devi is into the contest. She would be up against coalition candidate from AJSU Roshan lal Chaudhary and Sanjeev Kumar of the JMM. At Ichagarh also, wife of tall JMM leader Sudhir Mahto, Sabita Mahto has made the tussle interesting. Two-time MlA Arvind Singh of the JVM and Sadhu Charan Mahto of the BJP would be there to prove hold on considerable number of Mahto-Kurmi votes in the area.
At the same time, eyes would also be on some of the stalwarts and heavyweights in the State politics. Sitting MlAs and Ministers in the incumbent Hemant Soren Government Annapurna Devi and Jaiprakash Bhai Patel would be fighting to salvage their political legacy. Annapurna Devi is RJD nominee from Koderma while Patel is JMM candidate from Mandu. The former is locked in a straight battle with Neera Yadav of the BJP while the latter has big name in the form of former JD-U State president Khiru Mahto against him.
Dhanwar seat has become interesting for two reasons. One because the JVM supremo Babulal Marandi has selected it as his second seat to contest the polls and secondly because the nomination paper of sitting MlA Nizamuddin Ansari got quashed. Ansari had left Marandi's party and became a JMM candidate from the seat.
Some of the titans of Jharkhand politics are also into the field in the form of serving Minister and ClP leader Rajendra Singh from Bermo, former Speaker CP Singh of the BJP from Ranchi and AJSU chief Sudesh Kumar Mahto from Silli.
A few turncoats are sitting Gomia MlA Madhav lal Singh (BJP), Amit Mahto of the JMM (Silli) and Ashok Kumar Nag of JMM (Kanke). Eyes would also be on Sundari Tirkey (Congress-Khijri), Surendra Singh (Congress) and Mahua Majhi (JMM) from Ranchi and laxman Prasad Singh (BJP) from Dhanwar.