Three candidates left in RS poll race

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi | Tuesday, June 8, 2010

As the time to file nomination for two seats of the Rajya Sabha ended at 3 pm on Monday, three candidates remained in fray —- Ajay Maru (BJP), Dhiraj Sahu (Congress-JVM), and KD Singh of the JMM. Maru filed his nomination papers on Monday.

The election to the two seats will be held on June 17. The JMM-AJSU rattled over the selection of Kuwar Deep Singh. However, Singh got some relief after AJSU chief Sudesh Kumar Mahato finally announced to support the JMM candidate at a Press conference on Monday. The AJSU chief rued the decision of the JMM to field an outsider in the Rajya Sabha election, but finally Mahato conceded as a compulsion of the coalition dharma.

“We wished the JMM field a local candidate. We wanted a discussion among the coalition partners before agreeing to a name. It did not happen. But then AJSU is the alliance partner of the JMM. It is the part of our coalition dharma to support the JMM candidate,” Mahato said. He was flanked by four of his party MLAs.

The BJP, which expected that a last-time rupture in the JMM-AJSU alliance to force Mahato to drift towards the NDA, will have to knock some other houses for critical support of eight MLAs to win the seat. Ironically doors are not even ajar for the BJP.

The presence of the BJP has only made the battle triangular. While a candidate needs 28 votes of the first preference, the Congress-JVM and the JMM-AJSU candidates are very close to the number and require just three votes each, which may come from the independents. Even if the BJP and the JD(U), with 18 and two MLAs respectively, stands together they require another 10 votes of the first preference and it hardly appears feasible for Maru to win the race even if acts smartly to garner some votes of second preference. The BJP has instructed its MLAs not to cast the vote of second preference.

The RJD with five MLAs has maintained a tactical silence over its voting behaviour. “We have not decided our move so far. Let the picture become clear,” leader of the RJD legislative party Annapurna Devi said.

However, the RJD is divided over the choice: the Congress or the JMM. “If we are at loggerhead with the Congress in Bihar there is no point to join hands with them in Jharkhand,” a senior RJD leader said complaining Congress of step-motherly treatment.

Even the RJD is not clamouring in secular voices to support the Congress or the JMM either, as it used to echo for the formation of a secular government. Fact of the matter is that as a Congress leader said: “If Sahu has been in touch with the RJD MLAs then it is a different matter but the Congress leadership has not approached them. This time their support is not crucial for us as it happened last time.” There was unconfirmed swirl of rumours about the arrival of a NRI of Gujrati origin, NH Patel, who reportedly contacted the RJD and the AJSU for himself.

On the other hand, the JMM and its chief Shibu Soren continued to be a new story everyday. Soren maintained his unique distinction to change his stand over the projection and selection of the party candidate contradicting what he said publicly last day and even a few hours back.

For example, he projected and even announced the name of his lawyer Sanjeev Kumar as JMM candidate for the Rajya Sabha. The very next day he retracted it and termed it a mere proposal. JMM general secretary and Soren’s son Hemant Soren imported a business tycoon Kuwar Deep Singh as party candidate.

The day after his nomination Soren sprang surprise. “Who is KD Singh, I do not know him. I had not seen his face before. Hemant called me to accompany him (Singh) from New Delhi to Ranchi and I followed it. I was told that he is my doctor.”

Soren’s tom might make news but hardly serious. In the political circle it is widely believed that the JMM has been trying to lemon-off the maximum out of the purse of billionaire Singh. But, when politics and politicians of Jharkhand have date with such people during Rajya Sabha elections the weight of currency often under-weights ideological mooring.