Nearly 200 cars and SUVs wended through major roads of the Gandey Assembly segment on Saturday, supporting Kalpana Soren, the INDIA bloc-backed JMM candidate for a bypoll.

“Hum vidhayak nahi, CM chunenge (we won’t elect an MLA but a CM),” the crowd chanted as the road show passed by.

“CM apne kshetra ka hone se humara bohut faida hoga (If a chief minister is from our area, we will have many benefits),” said Amit Kushwaha, a tea shop owner at Bengabad, who voted for the BJP in the last two Assembly polls but was now supporting Kalpana.

Former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana seems to have stolen a march over the BJP’s Dilip Verma for the May 20 Gandey bypoll.

The jailed leader’s wife, making her political debut, appears to connect with people easily, said observers.

On Saturday, her road show from Sonabad via Gandey Bazaar to Leda had the presence of Koderma’s INDIA bloc-backed CPI-ML candidate Binod Singh, JMM leaders Hafizul Ansari, Mithilesh Thakur, Sudivya Kumar Sonu and Sarfaraz Ahmad, among others.

“We will win by a margin of at least 30,000. We are getting support from everyone, including BJP supporters, especially women voters,” said JMM leader from Bengabad, Md Shamim.

Kalpana interacts with the masses on three messages. She reminds people that Hemant “paid the price for not succumbing to the BJP’s pressure tactics”. She talks about the “Jharkhand’s stepmotherly treatment” by the Narendra Modi regime. Lastly, she tells people of her JMM’s pledge to fight for a separate Sarna code to “protect tribal identity”.

Lok Sabha constituencies Chatra, Koderma and Hazaribagh will also vote on the day of the Gandey bypoll.