Banna’s poll battle on cyber space
Vijay DEO JHA

“Make your vote count. Vote for Banna Gupta, it is easier than thinking,common sense makes good government.”
Bleeping above is a convincing plea and an insistent relief from raucouspoll campaign by robust lungs in the Jamshedpur battlefield: a serial bannerinvitation to visit *http://bannagupta.com/*, the fledgling, but flourishingwebsite of the Congress candidate Banna Gupta.

The adversary quarters—the JMM, BJP, JVM and AJSU—might have encroached uponthe Jamshedpur battlefield by a juggernaut campaign by banners and buntings,the cyber space is an exclusive domain where Banna flaunts with 4552 visitless than a week time. His poll campaign on the cyber space is powered by‘Anmoul Web Solution.’

If you thought that Banna all did out of fancy, and an uncouth copy of hisparty bigwigs likes Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, think again.

“There is a vast invisible lost of voters mostly youths who keep tab overcampaign through mediums like internet. There are people for whom voting isnot just a matter of political allegiance who rather will demand a veryconvincing argument before casting their votes in their favour,” Banna said.

Unfortunately for him, Jamshedpur isn’t a web-saturated environment exceptits urban spares, sizeable numbers of electorates that matter the most, arelocked in hard-to-reach and no network area.

“I don’t claim that cyber can do all the campaigning for me…and I am notrelying on cyber only. I am visiting constituencies and constituents,” Bannasaid. Where network fails Banna ensures his footfall.

Call it his fancy, call it his claim; Banna connects Jamshedpur with Japanand Jamaica too. “There is world outside Jamshedpur also. There are a lot ofpeople of Jamshedpur living in Japan, Jamaica and other parts of the worldwho may be interested in knowing about election and candidates,” he argued.

But Jamshedpur’s minuscule web community not more than of the 10 percent ofthe total population is no damper to the team that propels Banna’s cyber-runuploading megabytes of campaign details and others.

The battle for Jamshedpur is less than a week away, but the conquest ofcyberia is being well ensured for ‘Banna. His adversaries like DineshnandaGoswami (BJP), Sudhir Mahto (JMM), Ajay Kumar (JVM) and Suman Mahto (TMC)are far behind.

Even world’s most powerful search engine Google seems to be in sync withBanna’s giant leap in the politics: 84,500 web result in a single hit; farfrom more than what his main rival Goswami yields—1770. Banna is aeons aheadof his competitors.

Rahul Gandhi may not oblige him by campaigning for him, Banna’s cyberpromoters are close to sealing a poll deal with electorates. Tap “Banna forJamshedpur” he will pop up along with Rahul. “Elect Banna Gupta time for anew generation of leaders to step-up,” it scrolls — must read it in contestof Rahul.

What others have scored on the Google hit, are, after all, very low whatBanna quickly achieved. But, even if Banna is poaching on his rivals withpredatory alacrity on the web space the real battle lies somewhere else.

Peacemakers swing into action after brickbatting

Vijay Deo Jha

Hawks in the BJP and the JMM have done their job with predatory swiftness; it is time for the peaceniks to play their role.After the JMM Ministers Hazi Hussain Ansari and Mathura Mahto and BJP MP, Nishikant Dubey; ticked-off each others party on the last few days of the election campaign of the Jamshedpur parliamentary byelection, leaders of both the parties have now decided to halt their offensive.

“Election me toka taki chalti rahti hai lekin yeh election tak hi hai, (During the election a bit byplay happens. But it is limited up to the election only),” a senior BJP leader said. But top BJP sources admitted that the attack of BJP MP Dubey against the JMM and Deputy CM Hemant Soren as anti-development was premeditated and political.

“The BJP considers the JMM as its chief rival in the election…but we were facing problem in attacking the JMM since we are coalition partners in the Government. We had to do this and Dubey did this for us,” source said. But another top BJP leader explained that the BJP was not the first to start war of words. “They were the first to start this. We just delivered them in measured riposte after they threatened the BJP to pull down the Government,” he said. The JMM MLA and Minister in the coalition Government Hazi Hussain Ansari led the BJP into provocation as during an election rally he threatened the BJP to pull down the Government if it least wished to dominate its wishes.

Ansari was ministering the fortune of his own party in the election and trying to stitch Muslim support behind the party. A non-stop counterattack soon followed from both the sides. Dubey labeled JMM and Hemant as anti-development explaining the people that the consort of coalition with the JMM was forced by the compelling political circumstances. The last two days of campaign remained so tense for the warring alliance partners that Hemant lodged protest with the Chief Minister Arjun Munda but also issued a public statement not dismissing an imminent Assembly election.
An enthusiastic JMM MLA and Minister Mathura Mahto even went on to claim the CM post for the party.But after initial bickering; both the parties have decided not to add more in the trust deficit and fragile coalition. After making a frontal attack against the JMM, the BJP bosses have privately called for restrains; fearing the election results of the Jamshedpur might have wider ramification on the health of the Government.What exasperated the JMM was a frontal attack of the BJP against Hemant. The BJP termed it unbecoming as JMM Ministers are speaking against the Government.

Sarangi quits BJP over denial of by-poll ticket

Vijay Deo Jha

A day before declaration of the result of the Jamshedpur parliamentary by-election, disgruntled BJP leader and former Health Minister Dinesh Sarangi resigned from the party, ostensibly because he was denied a ticket to contest the polls.

The former MLA from Bahragora sent his resignation to the party national president, Nitin Gadkari, on Sunday morning. "It was a painful decision but I was forced to make it. The BJP in Jharkhand is a one-man show run by Arjun Munda. I was neglected many times by the leadership. I was denied a ticket despite having mass support," he told The Pioneer.

Sarangi and the State BJP have not been on the same page for the last couple of years. Many-a-time, the story of his sour relations with Munda landed in the public domain with each speaking against the other.But this time the rift has widened beyond repair. Sarangi was a strong claimant of the ticket but a last-moment intervention by Munda who, according to the party sources, was authorised to decide the candidate, ruined his chances. Munda favoured the party's State president, Dineshananda Goswami for the ticket.A disappointed Sarangi withdrew himself from the campaign despite repeated requests from the party andSarangi quits BJP over denial of by-poll ticket also refused to take part in the election rally of the BJP which was addressed by Gadkari."Some BJP leaders tried to get me to join the campaign but I refused. My supporters were quite angry at my humiliation," Sarangi said. Though, the election result will be announced on Monday, party insiders indicated that it may suffer a substantial loss of votes in Bahragora. Ironically, Bahragora is also the home constituency of Goswami.Sarangi is yet to reveal his future plans but indications are that he will join the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha of Babulal Marandi under whose regime he had served as Health Minister.The party has served a notice to him alleging anti-party activities during the by-election in which he allegedly helped Jharkhand Vikas Morcha candidate Ajay Kumar against Goswami. Sarangi, however, denied having received any such notice.

Munda gets summons from Delhi
Ranchi
The BJP’s defeat in Jamshedpur by-election might not have been a big jolt to the party’s national executive but has ruffled enough feathers for the leadership to call Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda and party president Dineshanand Goswami to New Delhi for an explanation.Both Munda and Goswami reached Delhi separately on Wednesday where they are expected to meet party seniors on the sideline of the meeting of State BJP presidents across the country on Thursday.

Goswami was beaten by JVM(P) candidate Ajay Kumar by a huge margin in the by-election. Taking moral responsibility for the defeat, he has resigned from the party post. “But this is not the end of the matter,” said a central BJP leader, adding, “resignation is no answer to what went wrong. It is an indication of a fall in popularity of the party. It is a serious issue.” Both Munda and Goswami may have to face questions on reports of infighting and organisational atrophy of the party in Jharkhand. Losing a prestigious seat like Jamshedpur, which Munda had won with a record margin the last time, would not be easy to explain.It is yet to be seen whether or not the central BJP will accept the resignation of Goswami and bring a new president for organisational overhaul. Sources in the party said the State BJP in-charge Harendra Pratap, too, is likely to be summoned with a detailed report on the organisational set-up of the party.“It is amazing to note that despite the fact that the party has to fight the Jamshedpur election the organisational elections here were not conducted,” the source said. The point to worry for the BJP bosses is that there is an urgent need of organisational overhaul in the party in view of the parliamentary elections in 2014. A section of party leaders now want the party to come out of the coalition government and focus upon the party and organisation for a fresh start. “The Jamshedpur result is a sign of failure of governance. We are facing a serious challenge from JVM that can be countered only by expanding the base of the organisation. If the Government is your priority then you are going to lose more in coming days,” a senior central BJP executive member said. Leaders of the conflict-ridden Jharkhand Congress, too, have arrived in Delhi seeking postmortem of the election result and a change of guard in the party. Leaders, belonging to the camps of State Congress president Pradeep Balmuchu and Union Minister Subodhkant Sahay, are currently engaged in an open spat. The State Congress is expecting a change of guard very soon but disturbing reports of backstabbing party candidate Banna Gupta in the election have central Congress leaders in a tizzy. Even if Balmuchu’s departure seems

JVM jangles mighty in Jamshedpur *
Strap—No mandate against government, people expected us to stay united:Munda
VIJAY DEO JHA

Ajay Kumar of the JVM grabbed the strobe-lights with his rampage run in theJamshedpur parliamentary by-election thus hammering the political ambitionof the BJP, JMM, AJSU and the Congress with his stunning surge.

BJP state president and candidate Dineshananda Goswami’s maiden push forparliamentary election to regain Jamshedpur was so firmly repulsed that hemay not have an opportunity to recover, he has already submitted his fate to resignation. “I accept the verdict. I don’t knowwhat went wrong but I will resign from my post,” Goswami said.
Soon after the result coalition Chief Minister Arjun Munda held a pressconference refusing to accept that the result is a kind of mandate againstthe government.
“People expected the coalition partners to field a common candidate. We didnot press for it since we had no such pre-poll alliance. If you see thepercentage of votes that the coalition partners have garnered; thegovernment has not lost the election. There are certain other factors,”Munda said.
But some vital reasons of defeat were beyond the articulation of Munda. TheBJP’s pride cohesion of view and machinery became victims of various degreesof chaos. The dispute over candidature and BJP’s failure to prevent opendiscord or to discipline it, littered across the segments of Jamshedpurconstituency—Bahragora, Potka, Jamshedpur East and West; where it lostsubstantially against the JVM.
The message that widely traveled among the voters about the BJP was not thatof a cohesive alternative, it was the message of a party mired in its ownchaos, contradiction, conspiracy and confusions.
BJP probably confronted a much more complex set of challenges and respondedpoorly. “We started our preparation casually as if we are winning andelection is a mere formality. It is party organisation that contestselection. In Jamshedpur there was no party organisation since theorganisational elections were kept in abeyance. Larger view among the partyworkers was that Goswami is contesting as Chief Minister Arjun Munda’scandidate. He was snubbed by the voters and workers too,” a senior partyleader said.
Did Munda and Co. misread Ajay Kumar as politically too anodyne? BJP’s hopeof victory rested on a very confusing and dangerous notion about thedivision of Opposition’s vote. The probably missed to notice that the JVMchief Babulal is a macro manager who could play a political retailer also.
Kumar encashed his past popularity as a strict cop among the urban voters;Marandi stitched behind him the rural and tribal support. With around fivelakh tribal voters; Marandi had an open field to foray. Munda could devotelittle time to campaign. State Congress Pradeep Balmuchu remained neutraland negative in campaign with ominous grunts against his party candidateBanna Gupta. And when the result was declared Kumar had already set a newrecord by winning the Jamshedpur election by a margin of 1,55,726 votes;leaving Munda’s previous record far behind.
The Congress’ big claim as sole claimant of Muslim and urban votes liessplintered. Netting around 49,137 votes Banna was pushed to fifth positionafter the AJSU. AJSU despite the defeat has some reason to rejoice with99,058 votes. It is an unexpected expansion of the base of the AJSU.
The Congress can seek comfort in the deep discomfiture of the BJP. But thefine-print has created scramble and a blame game. “It the party has lostdeposit it is because some of the party seniors including Balmuchu haddecided so,” a senior party leader said. But a few things have made themwary. Babulal Marandi is more on “ekla chalo” note indicating seriousoverview to get rid of the compulsion of coalition politics with theCongress. The Jamshedpur result has added spokes in our wheels. “Let theassembly election come we will contest all 81 seats in Jharkhand,” JVMgeneral secretary Praveen Singh said.
Both the parties have publicly undertaken to review what went wrong withtheir respective challenges. Munda promised a review in the coming days, theCongress is set to boil with a review meeting the next week.

If there was a single message the election result handed over to thenational players, the regional players like JVM and the AJSU will hold-upthe ambitions of national parties. Nevertheless, for the JMM, a prominentregional party the election result brought stunning surprise. Its coretribal and Mahto constituents have drifted towards and JVM and the AJSUrespectively.
Even if coalition partners have lost miserably in this big-ticketparliamentary by-election, the government will remain safe. Munda hasassured this. Probably the ghost of Marandi will keep the flock together.For the BJP it is not an end. Having brought the party to its lowest perch,its leader may now have enough time and space to ponder for lowly as it is,this perch is also a lonely place.

EoM
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