Former Minister Louis Marandi on Tuesday filed her nomination paper for the by-election of Dumka assembly seat as the BJP nominee hoping to grab this seat from the JMM.
She submitted her single set nomination paper to Dumka SDM cum returning officer Maheshwar Mahato.
State BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash, MLA and party senior Babulal Marandi besides many senior leaders of the BJP and AJSU Party accompanied her to file nomination paper.
Marandi, who served as minister of social welfare department in the Raghubar Das government was defeated by the JMM’s working president Hemant Soren with a margin of 13,188 votes in the last assembly election held in 2019. In the 2019 Assembly election Hemant Soren had netted 81007 votes which was 48.86 per cent of the total vote cast whereas she got 40.91 per cent votes.By-election of Dumka seat was necessitated as Soren quit this seat and retained Barhait seat.
Chief minister Hemant Soren has fielded his younger brother Basant Soren who filed his nomination on Monday. Basant is the sixth member of the first family of the JMM to contest the assembly election.
The BJP said that the party will raise issues of public concerns like poor law and order across Jharkhand.
“Law and order have completely collapsed in Jharkhand. Crime against women has increased. The government has failed to deliver as per expectation of people. A minor girl was gang raped and murdered in Sahibganj district. But the district police tried to cover-up this crime,” Babulal said.
The BJP is confident to win this seat and the party believes that Marandi will repeat 2014 when she had defeated Hemant Soren. That remained the much talked about topic post-election as Dumka was considered the stronghold of the JMM.
“Today I have filed my nomination. I am confident to get blessings from people because I always stand for them. The BJP will win this seat,” she said. Voting will be held on November 3 and the result will be declared on November 10.