Vijay Hansda and Jagganath Mahto get Rajmahal and Giridh seats

Ranchi, April 3: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) today announced its candidates on the four Lok Sabha seats of the state and once again party supremo Shibu Soren popularly known as ‘Dishom Guru’ or ‘Guruji’ will contest from his traditional bastion of Dumka.

Apart from him, the party has fielded Vijay Hansda from Rajmahal, party MLA Champai Soren from Jamshedpur and MLA Jaggarnath Mahto from Giridih seat. As part of the Mahagathbandhan which also includes Congress, JVM (P) and RJD the JMM was allotted four Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand.
The candidates were announced on these seats in a joint press conference which was addressed by party general secretaries Binod Pandey and Supriyo Bhattacharya.

The JMM�s announcement regarding Jamshedpur seat took everyone by surprise as speculations were high about local Kurmi leader Astik Mahato getting the ticket this time. The name of Baharagora MLA Kunal Sarangi was also doing the rounds as a probable for the prestigious Parliamentary seat. But the party put all speculations to an end with its declaration of candidate names.

Astik Mahato is a known face of the Kurmi community in and around Jamshedpur. He is known for enthusiastically organizing the Tusu fair at Gopal Maidan, Bistupur, every year.

In the last elections too, the JMM had not given ticket to any Kurmi candidate. Jamshedpur is traditionally seen as a constituency having a sizeable number of Kurmi voters. Hence, allotment of LS tickets essentially revolves around the Kurmi community, said a Kurmi leader.

“JMM will also fight 10 seats in Bengal, four in Bihar and one in Odisha,” said Bhattacharya. The names of the candidates in other states were also announced.