Munda mocks at Marandi after Kharsawan triumph

VIJAY DEO JHA | RANCHI National Page

BJP Chief Minister Arjun Munda wriggled out of dozens of public celebrations following his victory in Kharsawan on his way from Jamshedpur and, fired a fresh salvo against JVM chief Babulal Marandi, here in Ranchi, on Friday.

Munda did not name Marandi in his thirty minutes of interaction with the media and his party workers but, he made it amply clear that the person he loathed to name was Marandi. Munda on Thursday defeated Opposition-backed JVM candidate Dashrath Gagrai aka Krishna Gagrai with a modest margin of around 17,000 votes.

"We have won the election with the support of the people, despite rumours and confusions being spread by some people to divide the electorate. They have got an apt reply," he said.

Resorting to puns Munda lampooned Marandi for spreading confusion over the CNT Act, PESA and other issues. "The government has scraped CNT Act to allow the loot of the land of the tribal and others…how cheap," he quipped.

Cautioning his rivals that politicians and political parties should refrain from breaching people's trust, he flayed Marandi and the Opposition for ignoring this.

"Political parties have the right to seek support of the people over any issue. But they tried to fool the voters of Kharsawan…and were rejected and rebuffed."

On the PESA Act, under which three-tier panchayat elections in Jharkhand were held, Munda accepted that certain sections of the society might not have got adequate representation. "This aspect certainly needed to be looked into," he said, "but in Kharsawan I was surprised to see those people raising bogey over PESA Act who as MPs during 1996 had helped enactment of PESA as law in the Parliament."

This was a direct hit at former MP Sailendra Mahato who campaigned against Munda on behalf of Marandi.

"Such people spoke thousands contradictory things over PESA and CNT to different people, even forgetting that what they spoke an hour before, contradicted what they spoke an hour later."

Terming the Panchayat elections in Jharkhand as a decisive push towards women empowerment, he reckoned that around 60 of the total women population have got a direct say in the governance.

"But we never indulged in dirty politics over Panchayat election. We never laid sole claim for conducting panchayat election. It is really sorry to see them," he fumed. Promising to give a corruption free and development-oriented government in Jharkhand he promised social harmony.

Scorning Marandi for announcing the fall of Munda government a day after the Kharsawan result, and formation of the next government soon after, the CM said "Under the name of election many such people visited Kharsawan and stayed there for long and returned empty handed," he quipped.

Even as Munda was cheering the loyalists; the JVM was holding a Press conference to denounce his victory as " gross misuse of government machinery and money."

And the problem with the scribes was they could not afford to skip either of the conferences.