The campaign for the Dumri Assembly by-election in Jharkhand has picked up with heavyweight leaders of the INDIA bloc and the NDA becoming active in garnering support for their respective candidates.

The bypoll — slated for September 5 — was necessitated by the death of Jharkhand's former education minister Jagarnath Mahto on April 6. Mahto was a popular JMM leader and had won the seat in the Giridih district four times since 2005.

While Mahto's widow and state excise minister Baby Devi has been fielded as the consensus candidate of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), Yashoda Devi of the Ajsu Party will face her as the NDA candidate.

Chief minister Hemant Soren, along with leaders of other INDIA bloc parties such as the Congress and the RJD, held a public meeting in the Chandrapura area on Saturday, while Ajsu supremo Sudesh Mahto campaigned in some villages under Dumri block the same day.

Accusing the NDA of "trying to pull down the government", Soren assured his audience that the proposed domicile policy based on the khatian (land records) of 1932 that faced huddles "would eventually get through".

Sudesh Mahto, on the other hand, dismissed the Soren government's assurances as a "false promise" and said: "JMM now stands for Jharkhand Muscle (and) Money".

"We have now concentrated on panchayat level campaign, covering the interiors," Ajsu spokesperson Deo Sharan Bhagat, who was touring Dumri, told this newspaper and added that their candidate was in a better position.

"Unlike last time, NDA is fighting this by-election jointly," he argued, adding simple arithmetic put them in an advantageous position.

Jagarnath Mahto, who won the seat in 2019, polled 71,128 votes while his nearest rival Yashoda Devi of Ajsu Party bagged 36,840 votes and the BJP that fought separately and fielded Pradip Sahu as its candidate got 36,013 votes. The total votes polled by the BJP and the Ajsu candidates were more than Mahto's, they pointed out.

JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya, however, brushed aside such an argument.

"For voters, this by-election will not mean just casting their votes but also paying tribute to the departed leader Jagarnath Babu who was very popular," he said, adding many others would also support Baby Devi this time.

Some observers feel that Soren tried to score a point by inducting Baby Devi into his cabinet on July 3 though she was not an MLA.

He had done the same when he inducted Hafizul Ansari as a minister after the death of Hafizul's father and former minister Haji Hussain Ansari. Hafizul later contested and won the by-election for the Madhupur Assembly seat in May 2021.