The fortune of BJP’s Baghmara MLA Dhullu Mahto, who the party has named as its candidate for the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat replacing three-term MP P.N. Singh, has run into rough weather.
BJP sympathizer and Dhanbad district Marwari Sammelan president Krishna Agarwal wrote a letter on Thursday to BJP state president and MLA Babulal Marandi requesting him to ask party central leadership to review the decision of giving it to Mahto.
Agarwal has alleged in the letter that the MLA has 49 cases registered against him and he has been convicted in four different cases in the lower court.
“While claiming to speak against the mafia, the MLA has himself become a version of the mafia in the coal township. He has the habit of inciting one caste against another and is filled with ill habits of regionalism and caste feeling,” the letter alleges.
It also states that the sitting MLA and MP candidate has the habit of toying with Leftist ideology for coal workers while also supporting BJP ideology.
The letter cites Pandit Deendayal Upadhaya (one of BJP’s key ideologue and founder of Jan Sangh) statement and says that if the candidate is bad and the party is good then considering the candidate selection as a wrong decision by the party one should try to ensure the candidate lose in the election.
Several attempts to call Mahto on his official number went unanswered.
However, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and state general secretary Aditya Sahu expressed ignorance about the letter written by Agarwal.
“I am yet to see the letter so I cannot comment on it,” said Sahu.
Significantly, Dhanbad along with two other main cities of Jharkhand, Jamshedpur and the capital Ranchi goes to vote on May 25.
BJP sources claimed that pressure is mounting on reviewing the party candidate.
“There is deep resentment amongst our traditional voters on the selection of the candidate who is a history-sheeter and has several cases including extortion, land grab and assaulting government officials. We might have to face its consequences during
the election result if the candidate is not changed in what is a traditional bastion of BJP,” said a Dhanbad-based BJP leader.
BJP Gandey candidate
The BJP on Friday announced Dilip Kumar Verma as its candidate for the byelection in the Gandey Assembly constituency in Jharkhand, adds PTI.
BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said the party’s central election committee has approved Verma’s candidature for the bypoll, which will be held on May 20 along with Lok Sabha elections.
“Verma is a social worker, and is at present, holding the post of secretary in the party. He will contest elections for the first time,” Shahdeo said.
The Gandey seat in Giridih district fell vacant after the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad who was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha on March 14.
Speculations are rife that the JMM may field its arrested former chief minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren for the bypoll.