The ruling JMM and the Opposition BJP seem to be warming up for the byelection to the Dumka Assembly seat, given their escalated war of words over auctioning of coal blocks for commercial mining.

However, the bypoll date is yet to be announced.

Chief minister Hemant Soren, who had won two Assembly seats, retained Barhait and vacated the Dumka seat, necessitating the byelection.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Sunil Soren of the BJP had won the Dumka parliamentary seat, of which Dumka Assembly seat is a segment. Hence, both the BJP and JMM would give their best to win the seat.

After the Centre announced auctioning of 41 coal mines, half of which are in Jharkhand, Soren had written to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and coal and mines minister Pralhad Joshi, requesting them to postpone the process for six to nine months. The chief minister had claimed that the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic crisis would not invite prospective prices by bidders.

When his request went unheeded, the Jharkhand government filed a writ petition challenging the decision in the Supreme Court last week accusing the Centre of failing to assess the adverse social and environmental impact on the people and forests of the state, among others.

“The Centre should have taken the state into confidence before taking such a policy decision,” Soren told the media after the state government filed the petition. There should have been a socio-economic survey to assess if mining had at all benefited the people of the state and its environment, he added.

“Mining brings in issues of land dispute and displacement, besides health hazards,” Soren had said, adding that even the trade unions were up in arms against the auctioning of mines for commercial mining.

“This seems to push us back to the same system from where we had once returned,” Soren said, without mentioning the earlier private ownership of mines that was abolished by nationalisation of the coal sector nearly half a century ago.

BJP, on the other hand, asked the Soren government on Monday not to block the auctioning process.

“Why try to pose a legal hurdle for the auction?” BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi asked. He said solving the issues like land, displacement and rehabilitation rests with the state government.

Marandi also advised the state government to bring in a robust law for ensuring sustainable mining and employment for local people by filling up to 85 per cent of posts and assured the BJP would support such a move.

“We are ready to contest the bypoll even if it’s held tomorrow,” said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya, when pointed out that the war of words looked more like preparing for the election.