Jamshedpur, Singhbhum candidates pull up stockings as date with destiny looms closer

Mail News Service

Jamshedpur, April 28: With poll day or, the date with parliamentary destiny on May 12 looming closer, candidates in the fray for the Jamshedpur and Singhbhum LS seats are pulling up their stockings in a bid to breast the finishing tape in a blaze of victory.

BJP candidate and sitting MP for the Jamshedpur seat, Bidyut Baran Mahto is the NDA candidate expected to prevail at the hustings for another go at Parliament. BJP and its NDA partners are going full blast to woo voters through various forms of campaign to ensure victory for the candidate. Bidyut has to his credit many credentials in public fields and social endeavors in the five years of his parliamentary stint since 2014. The way he is being greeted wherever he is visiting shows his, the party�s and NDA�s upper hand as of now. The saffron team and AJSU Party are oozing confidence on Bidyut Baran Mahto�s expected �historic� victory at the hustings.

But JMM and the Opposition Grand Alliance candidate for the Jamshedpur hot seat, Champai Soren is a far from push over aspirant for the bus to Parliament. He is the party�s sitting Saraikela legislator who has a very strong foothold amidst the tribal communities. He is considered a messiah among the rural community and urban tribal pockets. He too is greeted warmly by the people of his constituency making it difficult for political analysts in tea shops and party offices to predict the final outcome which has all the makings of razor edge finish.

Champai Soren and the Grand Alliance partners are leaving no stone unturned to dethrone the current parliamentarian from the vital seat of the Jamshedpur LS constituency. The other 21 contestants in the fray stand no chance in the �Guru-Chela� contest as Champai Soren has been known to claim that Bidyut is his political student and the latter has not protested either. In fact, certain political pundits have gone so far as to state that even AJSU Party founder Surya Singh Besra and now the Jharkhand People�s Party candidate will lose his deposit in the dual contest.

Looking across the fence, the Singhbhum parliamentary seat too will not see a smooth walkover for sitting parliamentarian and veteran BJP leader Laxman Gilua. With nine candidates in the firing line at the hustings, the fight for top honours will be between Grand Alliance candidate Geeta Koda from the Congress and weather beaten NDA aspirant and current MP Laxman Gilua. Geeta has her bases especially in Jagganathpur LS constituency well covered and is expected to hold a good segment of voters in her sway. She too has done her bit and the opposition alliance has done their homework. It is going to be a tough contest under the blazing sun between her and her seasoned rival Laxman Gilua.

On the other hand, BJP leader and NDA hope Laxman Gilua is no sitting duck. His experience has made him a wily politician who will leave nothing to chance. He has been visiting his constituency areas and the results have been so far positive. �Laxman Gilua has done a lot for the people. It is under his stewardship that we have been able to see roads, wells and hand pumps and other social requirements that had remained on paper till earlier, see the light of day. Our votes are for him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,� said a middle aged resident of Gamharia. This man has had his finger inked on many earlier occasions.

The other seven candidates may well remain non starters or, at the most, �also rans.�

Looking at the present scenario, people to vote in the parliamentary polls in either seat have yet to receive the pep from star campaigners who have been assigned to pull the crowds who may be more eager to see them than to listen to their exhortations of voting for the candidates of their political segments.

But, as of now, as things stand, it may not be as simple a case of tossing a coin and claiming, �Heads I win, tails you lose.� On the contrary, the situation is that of poll generated adrenalin not only among the candidates but also among the voters, first-timers included, to see which way the political wind finally blows to make or break hopes of this part of the nation.