Under the seat sharing between the constituent parties of NDA for Jharkhand Assembly Elections 2024, BJP has got 68 out of 81 seats. While AJSU Party has got ten, JDU two, and LJP-R one seat.
BJP has released the first list of 66 out of 68 candidates.
In this list, family members of many other top BJP leaders including four former chief ministers of Jharkhand have also been made candidates. For which Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has accused the BJP of nepotism.
However, in the first list of 41 candidates of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha itself, there are names of many members of Hemant Soren’s family. At the same time, the first list of 21 candidates for Congress also has the names of sons and daughters of many senior leaders of the party.
BBC tried to know those faces among the candidates, regarding whose tickets BJP has been accused of nepotism.
The first list of candidates released by BJP includes the names of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda’s wife Meera Munda, former Chief Minister Madhu Koda’s wife Geeta Koda, former Chief Minister Raghuvar Das’s daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahu and former Chief Minister Champai Soren along with his son Babulal Soren.
Meera Munda
BJP has fielded Dr. Meera Munda as its candidate for the Potka Assembly. She is the wife of three-time Chief Minister of Jharkhand and one-time Union Minister Arjun Munda.
Meera Munda is known for working towards connecting tribal women in the Kolhan region with Kuchai silk training and providing archery training to tribal children.
According to Meera Munda, she has been a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 1999. She says, “I have got the ticket because of the work I have done on the ground during the last three decades and not because I am the wife of a former Chief Minister.”
Senior Jharkhand journalist Surendra Soren says that as soon as Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma became the election co-in-charge of Jharkhand, he had insisted that he would field all the big leaders of BJP in the elections. Like Arjun Munda, former CM Raghuvar Das is also among the top leaders of the state.
Soren says, “It is obvious that these leaders would have offered the party to make a family member a candidate instead of contesting the elections themselves.”
He further says that the party accepted that offer so that the activism of the big leaders remains with interest in the party’s interest, which can benefit the party in the elections.
Purnima Das Sahu
In fact, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghuvar Das, who won the assembly elections from Jamshedpur East seat for five consecutive times since 1995, lost to independent candidate Saryu Rai, who rebelled against the BJP, in the 2019 assembly elections.
But now Saryu Rai will contest from the Jamshedpur West seat on the JDU ticket as NDA’s joint candidate.
In such a situation, BJP has fielded former Chief Minister Raghuvar Das’s daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahu as its candidate for the vacant Jamshedpur East seat, who will face Congress candidate Dr. Ajoy Kumar.
Gita Koda
BJP candidate from Jagannathpur assembly seat, Geeta Koda, remained a housewife till 2009. But when her husband Madhu Koda had to go to jail in a corruption case. Then Geeta Koda became MLA for the first time from the Jagannathpur seat.
Gita Koda, who lost the election from the Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat in 2014, became MLA again by winning the election from the Jagannathpur assembly in the same year.
After joining Congress in 2018, Geeta Koda was elected MP from Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat in 2019.
But she joined the BJP before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But she lost the Lok Sabha election from the Singhbhum seat.
Ragini Singh
In the Jharia assembly constituency, Suryadev Singh was the first MLA from the family known as ‘Singh Mansion’.
After that, his wife Kunti Devi became BJP MLA from Jharia, and after that, his son Sanjeev Singh became MLA from BJP from Jharia. But Sanjeev Singh went to jail on charges of murdering his cousin Neeraj Singh.
Then in the year 2019, his wife Ragini Singh became the BJP candidate from Jharia seat. But she lost to Neeraj Singh’s wife Purnima Singh, who contested on a Congress ticket.
Now in the assembly elections 2024, BJP has again made Ragini Singh a candidate, who will contest from Jharia seat against her sister-in-law Purnima Singh.
Tara Devi
Tara Devi’s husband Indrajit Mahato became MLA from the Sindri assembly seat in the year 2019.
But after getting corona in 2021, he is still admitted in a critical condition in a hospital in Hyderabad.
Senior Dhanbad journalist Kunwar Abhishek Singh says that in the absence of Indrajit Mahato, his wife Tara Devi remained continuously active.
Shatrughan Mahato?
The current Dhanbad MP Dhulu Mahato has been a three-time MLA from the Baghmara assembly.
His elder brother Shatrughan Mahato, the strategist of his victory, is now a candidate from Baghmara.
Dhulu Mahato has represented the Baghmara assembly three times. Shatrughan Mahato says that he will win the election.
Roshan Lal Choudhary
Roshan Lal Choudhary, brother of Chandraprakash Choudhary, the current MP from AJSU quota from Giridih, is the BJP candidate from Barkagaon assembly.
While the current AJSU MLA from Ramgarh, Sunita Choudhary, is Roshanlal Choudhary’s sister-in-law. The special thing is that the Choudhary family is a close relative of AJSU supremo Sudesh Mahato.
Babulal Soren
The BJP has given a ticket to Babulal Soren from Ghatsila, an assembly seat reserved for scheduled tribes. He is the elder son of former Chief Minister Champai Soren. After being removed from the post of Chief Minister, the father-son duo had recently joined the BJP.
At the same time, his father Champai Soren was given a ticket by the BJP from Saraikela seat. Champai Soren has become MLA for the seventh time since 1991 on this reserved seat.
What did the BJP say
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) spokesperson Vinod Pandey says, “For the first time in the history of Jharkhand, BJP has given tickets to both father and son together on the issue of nepotism. If this is not nepotism then what is it?”
Former Chief Minister Champai Soren is one of the biggest leaders of Kolhan. BJP has given him a ticket from Saraikela seat. At the same time, his son Babulal Soren has been given a ticket from Ghatsila seat.
On August 27, BJP President Babulal Marandi wrote on social media that “Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is no longer a party of agitators but has become a private limited company of father and son.”
On this, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha spokesperson Vinod Pandey said, “The BJP, which calls JMM a party of husband-wife, father-son, should also look inside its own house where only nepotism will be visible now.”
On this, BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdev says, “No BJP worker will have the answer to the question of who will be the next national president of BJP. But the next national president of India Alliance constituents Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Samajwadi Party, Congress, and RJD will be from Shibu Soren, Mulayam Singh, Gandhi and Lalu families. Everyone knows this. This is called nepotism.”
JMM, Congress and CPI (ML) also gave tickets to relatives of leaders
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha may be accusing the BJP of nepotism, but there are many names in the first list of candidates who are relatives of party leaders. Among them are many members of Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s family.
In the list of 41 candidates released by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Hemant Soren is contesting from Barhet. His brother Basant Soren is a candidate from Dumka and his wife Kalpana Soren is a candidate from Gandey seat.
Apart from these, Alok Soren, son of Dumka’s current MP Nalin Soren, has been given a ticket from Shikaripara, Hafizul Hasan, son of former minister Haji Hussain Ansari, from Madhupur, and Baby Devi, wife of former minister Jagarnath Mahato, has been given ticket from Dumri.
Sabita Mahato, wife of former minister Sudhir Mahato, has been given a ticket from Ichagarh, and Jagat Manjhi, son of current MP Joba Manjhi from Singhbhum, has been given a ticket from Manoharpur. Vikas Munda, son of former MLA Ramesh Singh Munda, has got the ticket.
In the first list of 21 candidates of Congress, former MLA Yogendra Prasad Sao and Nirmala Devi’s daughter Amba Prasad have got tickets from Barkagaon.
Shilpa Neha Tirkey, daughter of former state Congress president and minister Bandhu Tirkey, has got a ticket from Mandar, Jai Prakash Patel, son of JMM stalwart Teklal Mahto, has got a ticket from Mandu and Dr. Irfan Ansari, son of former Congress MP Furkan Ansari, has got a ticket from Jamtara.
Kumar Jai Mangal Singh, son of former Congress MLA and minister Rajendra Singh, has got a ticket from Bermo, former Dhanbad mayor and Congress leader Neeraj Singh’s wife Purnima Singh has got a ticket from Jharia. After Pakur MLA Alamgir Alam goes to jail, there is every possibility of a member of his family being made the Congress candidate.
In the list released so far by CPI-ML, Vinod Singh, son of former MLA from Bagodar Mahendra Singh, and Arup Chatterjee, son of former MLA Gurudas Chatterjee, have been made candidates from Nirsa.
