Even as political corridor is abuzz with fissures in ‘Grand Alliance’ Phase-II threw surprise as Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) candidate for Jamshedpur West, Gulashan Ali, pulled out of the contest from the constituency which the Congress staked claim to and declared sitting MlA as its candidate for the constituency.
Congress’ candidate and sitting MlA, Banna Gupta will be working hard to secure the seat against Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) candidate, Saryu Roy which stands well placed after the saffron brigade registered impressive performance in lok Sabha elections.
Notably, Ali is among nine candidates who shunned their dream of contesting Assembly election from Jamshedpur West thus pulling down the number of candidates in the poll fray to 223 after 40 rejections in the scrutiny process.
After the scrutiny of nomination papers for six Assembly seats in East Singhbhum, 75 candidates are left in the poll fray. Post scrutiny nine candidates from Bahragora, 11 Ghatshila, 13 from Potka, 15 each from Jugsalai and Jamshedpur East besides 16 candidates from Jamshedpur West are in the poll arena.
A total of 1630 polling booths will be set up for the voting comprising 225 at Bahragora, 252 at Ghatshila, 279 at Potka, 318 at Jugsalai, 264 at Jamshedpur East and 292 at Jamshedpur West. Moreover, 7784 polling personnel will be involved in process of voting. A total of 990 at Bahragora, 1109 at Ghatshila, 1228 at Potka, 1399 at Jugsalai, 1452 at Jamshedpur East and 1606 at Jamshedpur.
Incidentally, the State government is dragging its feet over replacing lohardaga DC Vinod Kumar Singh following directions from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to replace him. The ECI has named IAS Rajeev Ranjan as the replacement but a notification to that effect is yet to be issued by the government. The order was issued on November 15 and was immediately forwarded to the government for further action.