BJP bets on veteran Ajay Maru

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi | Monday, June 7, 2010

The BJP has pinned its hopes on its old horse Ajay Maru for the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand, knowing well that he can at most make the contest triangular — he has no chance to win the election.

The BJP Parliamentary Board after a brief meeting announced his candidature for the Rajya Sabha election on Sunday. “Maru will be the BJP candidate for the election to Rajya Sabha seat, scheduled to be held on June 17,” said State BJP spokesperson Sanjay Seth. At a time when the BJP miserably suffered a major shrink in recently held Assembly election having to console with only 18 seats, the party does not even think to give a decent fight to JMM and Congress-AJSU candidates — KD Singh and Dhiraj Sahu.

In another major development on Sunday, the Jharkhand Vikash Morcha finally agreed to lend support to the Congress candidate. Earlier, the JVM had threatened to field its candidate blaming their alliance partner, the Congress, for not taking it into confidence before the announcement of the Rajya Sabha candidate.

The day began with hectic political parleys after AICC incharge K Keshav Rao, along with other senior leaders like Pradeep Balmuchu, CLP leader Rajinder Singh, Radha Krishna Kishore and others, visited JVM chief Babulal Marandi at his residence.

Soon after the meeting, Rao announced Sahu as the joint candidate of the alliance and claimed: “Our alliance stands as a rock against the Opposition,” he said and added, “We trust each other because people trust us.” Promising to ensure better coordination between the alliance partners, Rao mooted the proposal to form a coordination committee. Sources in the Congress said that the party might offer Marandi to head the committee.

Marandi also talked about the need to forge better coordination and said that his party will support Sahu and said: “Sahu is the candidate of the alliance we will vote for him.”

The Congress after getting assurance from the JVM has now 25 votes in its hand and needs another three votes to win. Besides the support of lone MLA of Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch, Bandhu Tirkey, the party is looking for another two crucial votes.

The Congress displayed no sign of wariness as a senior Congress leader claimed that the party will get more than 28 votes. “At least one vote of the NDA will stray in the Congress side the day of the voting,” the leader indicated towards JD(U) MLA Raja Peter.

The JMM candidate, KD Singh, is comfortable in the fray; it is despite AJSU chief Sudesh Kumar Mahato airing his discontent in public over the choice. “I was in the favour of a local candidate. But they (JMM leaders) fielded KD Singh without consulting us,” Mahato said. On being asked whether he will carry his impression till the date of election, Mahato was not so resolute. “We will discuss this issue with the JMM. We don’t have enough number of MLAs to field our own candidate.”

The two seats of the Rajya Sabha are going to poll on June 17, for which nominations can be filed by June 7. Maru will file his nomination on Monday. One cannot rule out a surprise till last minute of the election. Money rules the game in the Rajya Sabha election in Jharkhand.