With battlelines drawn between the ruling mahagatbandhan and the NDA for the November 3 byelections in two Assembly seats of the state, JMM’s Basant Soren filed his nomination for Dumka on Monday.

Accompanied by JMM central committee member Vijay Singh, Basant first offered prayers at Disom Manjhi Than, a place of religious significance for tribals, and then drove to the returning officer at the district collectorate without supporters in the wake of Covid-19 restrictions.

Chief minister and Basant’s elder brother Hemant Soren, ministers Alamgir Alam (rural development) and Badal Patralekh (agriculture), and a host of MLAs and party workers belonging to the ruling alliance, were present in Dumka. But they refrained from crowding the venue.

Dumka is JMM’s traditional stronghold. For 42-year-old Basant, this will be his electoral debut in an election although he contested Rajya Sabha polls in 2016 as JMM candidate and lost.

Later, Hemant told reporters at Khajuria that the JMM was confident of retaining its bastion in the Santhal Pargana. “The results will be no different and we will clinch the seat this time too by a good margin. Dumka is the place where Baba Shibu Soren began his political journey. In the 2019 elections, people of this state rejected the BJP to give us a clear mandate for the next five years. We are committed to the people,” he said.

Chief minister Hemant Soren with Basant Soren (seated, left) and Kumar Jaimangal, party candidates for Dumka and Bermo respectively. Telegraph picture

Elections in both seats will be a test of popularity for the ruling coalition of Congress-JMM-RJD, which ousted BJP-AJSU-P combine in the 2019 Assembly elections.

In Bermo, the Congress has fielded former MLA Rajendra Prasad Singh’s son, Kumar Jaimangal. He will file his nomination on Wednesday. BJP candidates Louise Marandi will file her nomination in Dumka on Tuesday while Yogeshwar Mahto ‘Batul’ will do so for Bermo on Wednesday.

NDA partners BJP and AJSU-P jointly surfaced before the media on Monday, the first time after the two parties joined hands. State BJP president Deepak Prakash, Dhanwar MLA and BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi, along with Sudesh Mahto and AJSU-P’s Giridih MP Chandra Prakash Choudhary, spoke to the media together.

Babulal Marandi said, “This bypoll will be significant in more ways than one. First, this will be a fight between the NDA and political dynasts (read JMM and Congress). Secondly, it will also mark the downfall of the ruling alliance as people are frustrated over mis-governance and a spurt in lawlessness.”