Hatia bypoll: Too tough a fight for Sahays!

VIJAY DEO JHA

RANCHI

He dares dust and stinging heat, grabs hands of few youth’ and does some whispering in ears that came close to him, fondles a couple of school going kids and asks if they know who he is and jumps back to announce. “All of them know me personally…even children; this is happening everywhere, so you judge how I am doing,” he cocks back his sweaty head.

Call it confidence, call it complacency, Congress party candidate Sunil Sahay has convinced himself that he is set to grab Hatia. He is loath to his experience in active politics and looks the other way when his opponents  even within the Congress  dismiss him just as younger brother of Union Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay.

Muted protest of giving preference to family rather than dedicated party workers has become louder. On Wednesday, veteran Congress leader Pratibha Pandey accused senior Sahay as responsible for the rout of the Congress. “Sahay had started the process of the ruin of the Congress which will be finished in Hatia,” Pandey said on Wednesday and announced to join the BJP. She is peeved at the denial of ticket. The Congress has a long list of such whiners who are secretly wishing and plotting for defeat to boom on the face of the Sahays.

“My opponents have been running short of ideas and arsenal against me. They have accepted defeat in advance,” he chucks such impressions in the bin and moves ahead to other locations to grab more hands. This is a huge leap of faith that he has acquired during his tedious tour of Hatia constituency. His elder brother has already deployed his trusted men, might, manner and mesmerism for him and Bhabhi (Sister in law) Rekha Sahay too came out of the kitchen to catch vote. He knows, though, at the bottom of his conviction of victory that he argued ahead of time, that it will take very little to un-work all his talk of work.

This is Hatia Assembly constituency after all where caste, candidate, combination and party organisation are intrinsically woven. There are candidates like Ramji Lal Sarda (BJP), Naveen Jaiswal (AJSU), Ajay Nath Sahdeo (JVM) and few others who have made the fight multi-cornered. Sarda is probably fighting the last election of his life and the BJP has deployed its organisational base, up to booth level, to snatch Hatia back from the Congress and to compensate what Sarda lost marginally in the last election at the hand of Congress’ late Gopal Sharan Nath Shahdeo of the Ratu royal family. “Here it is BJP not Sarda who is fighting. In the Congress this is a Minister who is fighting the election. Things are going to be miserable for the Sahays,” Hemant Keshri, a BJP worker said. Even if the contest become bipolar, between the Congress and BJP finally, Sahay has two powerful contenders, Ajay and Naveen who are targeting the Congress’ core Muslim votes.

“Muslims en masse are not going to vote for the Congress. There are many Muslim candidates in the fray other than the move of JVM and AJSU. We need to be very cautious,” says Ashraf Ali, a Congress worker at Itki Bazaar.

Itki appeared divided over its electoral choice. The contest is mainly among BJP, AJSU and JVM while the Congress is trying to jostle for its share.

Don’t forget Virendra Bhagat here in Itki area just because he is contesting as an independent. Having potential hold over Sarna votes in Itki, which has a sizeable chunk of around 20,000, Bhagat has been wooing Christian votes too with independent MLA Bandhu Tirkey now extending him over support.

Sahay’s adversaries have surrounded him from all sides, from rural to urban areas, from campaign to criticism. “It is time to teach the Congress lessons for loot and corruption…time to teach the Congress for neglecting Hatia,” as though his opponents have ganged-up against him. “We are getting publicity free of cost. That means we are in the fray,” chortled one Congress worker but he admits that the Opposition has thrown unexpected challenges. And junior brother is counting too much on his elder to handle the Opposition’s mounted assault.

The large part of Ratu which remained loyal to the Congress because of its loyalty towards the royal family may witness loyalty shift. “People voted to Gopal sahib not to the Congress. This time, the BJP will gain here,” said Mahaveer Gupta, owner of a cloth shop. If proof is required BJP flags fluttering atop houses indicate so. Ajay, kin of the royal family is trying to claim the legacy of Shahdeo. Sahay knows that election result will have far reaching impact   a truth he will not accept publicly.