BJP Walks Into Jharkhand Battleground With Babulal Marandi

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BJP List For Jharkhand Reveals Tribal & OBC Card for Assembly Polls

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, October 19: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday announced 66 candidates for the Jharkhand Assembly elections. Former Chief Ministers Babulal Marandi and Champai Soren will contest the Assembly elections.

The first list of the BJP candidates reveals clear strategy of the party to play the tribal card aggressively. Babulal Marandi will contest the Assembly elections from the Dhanwar constituency.

Babulal Marandi was the first chief minister of Jharkhand. He held the office of the chief minister from 2000 to 2003. Hailing from the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) background, Babulal Marandi was groomed by the saffron outfit to lead the party in Jharkhand.

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The BJP has given clear clues that the party will be banking on him to wrest power in Jharkhand. After the exit of former chief minister Raghubar Das from active politics, the BJP brought back Babu Lal Marandi into the key role as the leader of the Opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly.

Champai Soren will contest the Assembly elections from Saraikella constituency. The BJP is hoping that Champai Soren will influence at least a dozen Assembly constituencies. He was the chief minister of Jharkhand when the incumbent Hemant Soren had been jailed in the office for profit case.

After he was ousted from the post of the chief minister by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Champai Soren joined the BJP. The saffron outfit per sources had hoped that Champai Soren would help half a dozen legislators of the JMM to defect to the BJP. But the JMM was able to protect the party flock in the state.

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The BJP first list of candidates is dominated by candidates from the tribal and the other backward castes (OBC) backgrounds. Geeta Koda will contest as the BJP nominee from the Jagannathpur Assembly constituency.

Muniya Devi will challenge Kalpana Soren, the wife of Hemant Soren, from the Gandey Assembly constituency. Kalpana Soren had made her electoral debut from the Gandey Assembly seat while her husband was in the Ranchi Jail.

There are 28 reserved Assembly seats in Jharkhand. The JMM-led alliance in the state had won 26 of the 28 reserved seats in the 2019 Assembly elections. The incumbent chief minister is seeking to cash in on the emotional card for his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

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The BJP has also fielded Sita Soren from the Jamtara Assembly constituency. She is the daughter-in-law of the JMM founder Shibu Soren. The BJP has also fielded Meera Munda, wife of former Union Minister Arjun Munda, from the Potka Assembly seat.

The BJP will be contesting 68 of the total 81 Assembly seats. The BJP has ceded 13 Assembly seats for the alliance partners consisting of the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), the Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Jan Shakti Party.

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