Jharkhand election: Key candidates, including BJP State president Babulal Marandi, file nomination

In the 2019 Assembly election, Marandi had contested as a Jharkhand Vikas Morcha candidate and won the Dhanwar seat

Several Bharatiya Janata Party and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidates filed their nomination on Monday (October 28, 2024), including former Chief Minister and Jharkhand BJP president Babulal Marandi from Dhanwar Assembly constituency.

Before filing his nomination, Mr. Marandi visited his native village Kodaibandh in Giridih district and worshipped in a temple. Dhanwar, a politically important Assembly seat, will witness a triangular contest as INDIA bloc partners Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and JMM have fielded separate candidates against Mr. Marandi. Rajkumar Yadav will contest for CPI(ML) and Nizamuddin Ansari for JMM.

Koderma MP and Union Minister Annapurna Devi was also present during his nomination. Dhanwar seat falls in Koderma Lok Sabha constituency and much is at stake for her too. During the Lok Sabha election, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate Ms. Annapurna Devi of the BJP had polled 1,17,425 votes from the Dhanwar Assembly segment while INDIA bloc’s Vinod Singh of CPI(ML) had polled 73,338.

In the 2019 Assembly election, Mr. Marandi had contested as a Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) candidate, and was the president of the party. He won the seat by securing 52,352 votes, while the BJP’s Laxman Prasad Singh received 34,802. Mr. Yadav, who won the seat in 2014, finished third with 32,245 votes. Similarly, Mr. Ansari had contested as the JMM candidate, polling 14,432 votes. Mr. Marandi subsequently merged his party with the BJP.

“With a pledge to end corruption, nepotism and infiltration in Jharkhand and to save roti, beti and maati [livelihood, daughters, and land], I filed the nomination as the BJP candidate from Dhanwar,” Mr. Marandi posted on X.

After filing the nomination, Mr. Marandi also addressed a public meeting in Dhanwar, where he attacked Chief Minister Hemant Soren for not taking up any developmental work in the State. He also alleged that the JMM and Congress leaders only do work for their family members and cheated the people of Jharkhand.

BJP candidates Ragini Singh and Nirbhay Kumar Shahabadi also filed their nominations from the Jharia and Giridih Assembly constituencies respectively.

Similarly, CPI(ML) leader and three-time MLA Vinod Kumar Singh filed his nomination from Bagodar. The seat has been a stronghold of CPI(ML), with Mr. Vinod Singh’s late father Mahendra Singh also representing it previously. Mr. Vinod Singh is pitted against Nagendra Mahato of the BJP.

JMM candidate and Minister Baby Devi filed her nomination from Dumri. JMM has won this seat five consecutive times, with Ms. Devi’s husband Jagarnath Mahato representing the seat for four terms. Ms. Devi had won the by-election held after the death of Jagarnath Mahato and had defeated All Jharkhand Students Union candidate Yashoda Devi.

Published - October 28, 2024 08:21 pm IST