The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) has pulled up its socks and pressed the accelerator harder ahead of the 2014 lok Sabha polls. The Babulal Marandi-led party is believed to have finalised the names for most of the 14 seats figuring in the State and planned big rallies in all the districts starting from December.
Sources in the party confided that the leadership had made up its mind on Dhanbad, Palamau, Godda, Giridih, Koderma, lohardaga, Jamshedpur and Chiabasa besides some others. “The seats where we are still in the process of finalising the names include Hazaribagh, Khunti, Chatra and Ranchi. On the other, we have more or less finalised the candidates,” said a senior party leader requesting anonymity. JVM had already come in public announcing that it would field candidates in all the lok Sabha seats in the upcoming General Elections.
Though no official announcement on the allotment of ticket has been made, chances are rife that Ghuran Ram from Palamau, Pradeep Yadav from Godda, Dhullu Mahto or Saba Ahmed from Giridih, Pranav Verma from Koderma, Birender Bhagat from lohardaga and Krishna Gagrai from Chaibasa would contest under party’s banner in 2014. Another party MlA Samresh Singh (Bokaro) may be fielded from Dhanbad.
There is also a deeper sense in the party and broad understanding that its supremo Balulal Marandi, presently representing Koderma in the lower House of Parliament, may not fight election this time around or in case contests it would not be the same constituency. “He is trying to focus entirely on Assembly polls and don’t want to send out confusing signals to the electorates back home. In case he changes his mind he is most likely to contest from Dumka this time,” said a general secretary of the party. Apart from Khunti; Ranchi is another seat where the party is still in two minds. It is eyeing to hook Jharkhand State Cricket Association chief Amitabh Chaudhary, keeping in mind his “popularity among urban voters and non-availability of any other suitable candidate”, but his reported flip-flop has delayed the decision. “We could go with him without any problem but he is not clear about his decision to choose the party. He has had several consultations with Babulalji but keeps tapping the BJP as well at the same time. He is in a dilemma,” said the leader.
On the preparation front, the party is readying itself to organise a series of meetings with party workers at sub-division level. “The meetings would go up to booth-wise after Durga Puja. After that between December 15 and January 31 big rallies would be conducted in all the 24 districts,” said Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, general secretary of the party.
The JVM is already done with Assembly-wise meetings throughout the State.
The party is also working on the strategy to keep direct consultation with the booth level workers so that immediate feedback can be taken from them about voters’ mobilisation and other issues. The party has given the responsibility to its youth wing to tap the issues like special status for Jharkhand that has become politically sensitive at present.