Five MLAs in Lok Sabha poll fray, more in store

Ranchi: Incumbent MLAs of the current state assembly formed a sizeable chunk of the Lok Sabha candidates cutting across party lines, this time. More MLAs could be in fray for the upcoming parliamentary polls as the political parties would be completing the announcement of their candidates soon.

BJP, which has announced its candidates in 13 out of 14 seats in the state, has fielded three incumbent MLAs. While its Hazaribag MLA Manish Jaiswal has been named the candidate for the Hazaribag Lok Sabha seat, Baghmara MLA Dulu Mahto has been named the candidate for Dhanbad. Similarly, former JMM MLA Sita Soren from Jama, who crossed over to BJP nearly two weeks ago, was named the candidate for the Dumka Lok Sabha seat.

Interestingly, all three MLAs fielded by BJP have been elected from their respective seats at least twice and have replaced sitting MPs of their respective constituencies. While Jaiswal replaced sitting MP Jayant Sinha, Dulu replaced sitting MP, P N Singh. Similarly, Sita replaced sitting MP Sunil Soren, whose name had been announced as the candidate in BJP’s first list of candidates across 11 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

While the saffron party is banking on the incumbent MLAs to retain three parliamentary seats this time, Congress is aiming to capture Hazaribag on the shoulders of another incumbent MLA Jai Prakash Bhai Patel. Patel was BJP’s Mandu MLA but he switched over to Congress. The grand old party is likely to name its remaining candidates by April 5.

Similarly, CPI-ML-L has fielded Bagodar MLA Vinod Kumar Singh for the Koderma Lok Sabha seat this time. Singh will be up against outgoing Union minister of state Annapurna Devi. In 2019, the party’s Dhanwar MLA, Raj Kumar Yadav, had finished third in the seat. While JMM is yet to name its candidates for Lok Sabha polls, chances are high that it would field a couple of incumbent MLAs. RJD’s lone MLA Satyanand Bhokta, who is also the industries minister in the cabinet of CM Champai Soren, is also a frontrunner for the Chatra seat under the INDIA bloc.

“Incumbent MLAs are making the cut because of their popularity among people and not because there is a dearth of good candidates,” Congress legislative party leader Alamgir Alam told TOI on Sunday. BJP also echoed similar sentiments. “Candidates are picked as per their track record, winnability factor and social equations. The party decides when and how to use a candidate,” BJP’s state spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said.