Charges @ 6 croes

Soren paid Maoists Rs 6 cr to win Tamar bypoll: Nitish

Vijay Deo Jha Tamar 28 December, 2008

Tamar by-election is a regional election story reported from different datelines ad nauseam, but it refuses to die, or even bore the masses today.

It was witnessed on Saturday when Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during an election rally at Nabadih and Bundu charged the Jharkhand Chief Minister and UPA candidate Shibu Soren for wheeling and dealing with the Maoist outfits to ensure his victory.

Soren drew flak from the NDA combine due to his recent pro-Maoist statements. A peeved Soren had justified his pro-Maoist statement in one of the election rallies a day back stating that he was not wrong in asking Maoists to join Government as they were not dogs and cats.
At Bundu Ground, it was the turn of JD (U) MLA Radhakrishna Kishore to pose question to Soren whether late Munda, SDPO Pramod Kumar and those police personnel who lost their lives were indeed dogs and cats. Taking exception at the statements of Soren as objectionable, the president of State JD (U) Jaleswar Mahto quipped: "It might not be surprising if one day Soren indeed handovers police stations and Government offices to Maoists.

Supporting the allegation leveled by his party colleague and the national spokesperson of Janta Dal United (U) Shivanand Tiwari, Nitish said: "Soren has signed a pact with Maoists to ensure his victory in Tamar by paying Rs six crores to them. Tamar by-election is a testing ground of the sharpness of the teeth of the Election Commission."

For this young Chief Minister who took everybody by surprise by unseating the decades’ long regime of the subaltern sahib of Bihar --- Lalu Prasad; the by-election of Tamar could bring a political revolution. "A mere election can decide your fate; it would bring an end to the era of corruption, underdevelopment and state of lawlessness which Soren has allowed," Nitish pointed out.

He appealed the voters to elect JD(U) candidate Vasundhara Munda, the widow of slain party MLA Ramesh Singh Munda, and asked them not to forget the works of development done by the late Munda.

It was another political revelation at Nabadih Ground when Nitish supported Lalan Singh, party president Bihar JD (U), who stated that Soren once tried to allure late Munda to be the Chief Minister of Jharkhand by engineering a split in the NDA, which the latter refused.

This presents the character of late Munda and Soren in contrast who is now trying every unethical trick to win the election, Nitish blasted. "It amazes everybody that what forced Soren to contest Tamar by-election when once he publicly blessed this widow…and now he is opting every trick to woo Maoists and even inviting them to join the Government and take rein of administration.
Here was a Chief Minister who was trying to woo the voters through his meticulously selected words with polished humour and puns. Known through as Susashan Kumar, Nitish tried to underline the development of Bihar within short span of time and drew a parallel with Jharkhand which he said lagged behind in terms of development. The development of Jharkhand became haywire after the exit of the Government led by the National Democratic Alliance.
A mere bus ride from Patna to Ranchi through road route can give you the real feel of the development of Bihar that took place in the last three years. But in Jharkhand the development is in retrograde motion, Nitish said.

No politics between the wickets in Tamar

Vijay Deo Jha Ranchi Saturday, December 27, 2008

Candidates and leaders contesting and canvassing for Tamar by-election may genuinely use body line campaign against their contenders to win the game.

”This is cricket not election where you suppose to flabbergast the batsman with bodyline bowling”. Amid the screams of “how's that” matched with equal number of people from opposite team howling it as 'foul'; warning is clearly heard during a local cricket tournament at Salgadih where 35-year-old Raghu Patar, the umpire of the match warns the pace battery, named as Bhola. “No politics between the wickets.”

Whereas people and politicians in Tamar are in a twisting brain game to speculate about the winability of the candidate, a good number of youngsters have a busy time organising a small-time 'Sunil Mahto Cricket Tournament.' Nearly 10 teams across the villages of Tamar have been participating. The match is interesting, but spirit is quite friendly.

"We organise such matches every year in the month of December and manage the finance on our own…this time we decided to rechristen it after the name of late Sunil Mahto," said Sudhir, the organiser.

In a stark contrast to the extensive electioneering of the party and candidates in Tamar that still gathers little crowd and clapping by the motley crowd that thronged this sprawling ground is generous to encourage the players on their every fine play. "We are from a nearby village and have come to encourage our team… it is good to watch cricket," said Vinod Ram, a graduate hailing from village Haramlohar.

Since most of the schools are closed for winter vacations and no examinations at hand, youngsters turn out in large numbers to see the tournament. With every four and six, cheer kids would raise cheer slogans and a bunch of clueless sheep grazing nearby would lift its head in astonishment what the whole fuss was about.

While the by-election is at a sniffing distance such cricket matches, teams and players are on the political radar of the candidates as their prospective electoral fodder. The boundary of the ground was dotted with party flags that indicated the political interest of the party to bring them in their catchments area. This is apart from those youths who are paid Rs 500 per day to fill fuel tanks of their motorcycles.

"How many politicians and candidates have approached you for vote so far?” Not very much forthcoming about this, the commentator Dinesh Mahto, who peeps down from the makeshift bamboo platform saying: "So many leaders have come and assured to support us with money and promised to give award to the man of match."

The organisers have announced to give 1000 rupees to the wining team and five hundred to the second winner. But after much prodding a member of the organising committee said: "They promised to give money and other things after the declaration of the result."

But fine bargaining is on. They passed resolution to vote for the candidate who supplies them with cricket kits. Better, intelligent candidates rush to such grounds to tap their voters, as it is a cricket season - apart and unaffected by bodyline campaign.