The top guns of State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have zeroed-in on two names, including one of an AJSU Party leader, for representing the saffron party in the Madhupur bypolls slated on April 17, party insiders who attended a meeting of the BJP State Election Committee said on Saturday .
The party is likely to either field former state minister Raj Paliwar or back Ganga Narayan Ray, who secured over 45,000 votes in the 2019 polls as an independent candidate for Madhupur assembly constituency, party insiders said. While Paliwar bagged the second spot by securing more than 65,000 votes, Ray managed to bag the third position without the backing of any political party.
“There is a tough contest between Raj Paliwar and AJSU’s Ganga Narayan Ray for the candidature in the election. Ray will contest on a BJP ticket if at all his candidature is finalised,” said a senior office bearer of the party, requesting anonymity.
BJP state chief Deepak Prakash, former chief minister Babulal Marandi, national vice president Raghubar Das and union minister Arjun Munda, former party chief Laxman Gilua, MLA Neelkanth Singh Munda and former MP Ravindra K Rai on Saturday held a brainstorming session at the party headquarters in Ranchi to finalise the name of the candidate for the bypolls.
An official communiqué from the BJP stated that at least three names will be sent to the central election committee of the party in New Delhi, and the committee members there will take the final call.
“Our senior leaders will finalise a few names and send them to the central election committee. I think the central committee should take the final call in the next two days,” said party spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo.
The Madhupur Assembly seat was left vacant after the demise of former minister Haji Hussain Ansari last year. Ansari suffered from a Covid-19 infection and died of a cardiac arrest during treatment at a private hospital in Ranchi. Ansari’s son Hafizul Hassan is likely to contest the Madhupur polls on a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket.
The election is likely to be a head-on contest between the BJP and the JMM – two of the strongest parties in the state assembly. The two parties have similar support base in the constituency. Since 2005, both the parties have won the seat twice and have a 50-50 success rate, say experts.
At present, JMM has 29 of the 81 seats in the State Assembly, while BJP has 26. The Congress party has 18 MLAs and is a part of the ruling coalition government with JMM. There are two AJSU Party legislators, one RJD, one NCP and one CPI (ML) legislators. The remaining two legislators are independent.