Both the ruling combine and the Opposition in Jharkhand have put in their full strength to win the bypoll for the Mandar Assembly constituency, slated for June 23.

While the Congress, a major constituent of the present dispensation in the state, aims at retaining the rural seat reserved for ST, the BJP that lost it in the 2019 election fights hard to wrest it.

The Congress has fielded Shilpi Neha Tirkey, daughter of Bandhu Tirkey, while the BJP has pitted former MLA Gangotri Kujur against her.

It was Bandhu Tirkey who had won the seat in 2019 but was disqualified following his conviction in a disproportionate assets case, necessitating the bypoll.

The ruling combine is facing the task of retaining the fourth Assembly seat where bypoll is being held since the 2019 Assembly elections, after it has successfully won Dumka, Bermo and Madhupur seats in earlier bypolls.

Three former BJP chief ministers — Babulal Marandi, Arjun Munda and Raghubar Das — besides Union minister of state for education Annapurna Devi and the party’s state unit president Deepak Prakash have actively joined the campaign in favour of the BJP candidate. Ajsu chief Sudesh Mahto has also expressed his party’s support for Gangotri Kujur.

The Congress campaign, on the other hand, has been spearheaded by four ministers of the state — Rameshwar Oraon, Alamgir Alam, Badal Patralekh and Banna Gupta — and the party's state unit chief Rajesh Thakur.

Chief minister Hemant Soren, who had accompanied Shilpi when she filed nomination, was also expected to address an election rally within the next two days.

“We are expecting confirmation of his programme later on Sunday,” informed the Congress state spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan Prasad.

Both the camps are organising election rallies at village and panchayat levels to reach out to more voters.

The BJP is trying to convince the voters that they must refrain from supporting the Congress as the party has betrayed their confidence and indulged in corruption, resulting in the bypoll.

The Congress, on the other hand, argued that the voters had elected Bandhu Tirkey for five years but the BJP falsely implicated their representative to disqualify him as an MLA.

“I’m contesting the poll to fight against the injustice done to my father (Bandhu),” the Congress candidate Shilpi said.

The bypoll became more interesting as Dev Kumar Dhan, who unsuccessfully contested the 2019 assembly election as a BJP candidate but denied ticket this time, also entered into the fray as an Independent candidate supported by the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and the AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also addressed a rally at Chanho for him on Saturday.

The observers were divided in their opinion on how Dhan’s candidature would impact the prospects of the Congress and BJP candidates.

Some of them felt that Dhan as the BJP candidate in 2019 had bagged over 69,000 votes and would make a dent in the BJP vote bank this time.

Others felt that a sizeable part of the Muslim votes that would traditionally go against the BJP, favouring the Congress candidate might go to the AIMIM candidate this time. It could be a cause of worry for the Congress candidate, making the poll scenario rather hazy.