The BJP, in all likelihood, will field Ajsu-P's Ganga Narayan Singh for the Madhupur byelection after he formally joined the saffron camp at the state party headquarters on Monday morning, ending days of speculation ahead of the start of the nomination process from Tuesday.
BJP legislative party leader Babulal Marandi, MLAs Narayan Das (Deoghar), Randhir Kumar Singh (Sarath), among other senior party leaders, were present to welcome him.
Singh, 42, contested from Madhupur on a Sudesh Mahto-led Ajsu Party ticket in the 2019 Assembly elections but finished third, garnering about 45,000 votes. While JMM’s Haji Hussain Ansari won the seat, BJP’s Raj Paliwar came second. Ansari, who was in charge of the minority welfare department in the Hemant Soren cabinet, died last October necessitating the byelection in the seat in the tribal stronghold of Santhal Pargana.
The byelection in Madhupur is scheduled for April 17. Results will be declared on May 2.
Singh said he was glad to join the BJP, which under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been working tirelessly for the uplift of various strata of society ever since it came to power at the Centre in 2014. On his expected candidature for Madhupur, he said, “As a party worker, I shall do whatever is expected of me from the central and state leadership.”
Reacting to his joining, Marandi said, “Ganga’s entry will strengthen the party in the entire Santhal Pargana.”
BJP and Ajsu-P are part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Jharkhand. Singh joining the BJP is as per a tacit understanding between the two allies to stay united in the state, said BJP sources. Although AJSU-P had initially staked claim to the Madhupur seat, it dropped the demand after the BJP allowed it to contest one seat (Baghmundi) in the coming Bengal assembly elections.
A senior BJP leader said, “Ganga Narayan Singh’s name is on top among potential candidates recommended to the BJP high command by the state BJP election committee. With his joining the party fold, it’s only a matter of time that his candidature is announced formally.” Another contender, BJP’s Raj Paliwar, had won from Madhupur in 2005 and 2014 but lost in 2019.
Another leader said that the reason the BJP is preferring a fresh face in the form of Ganga Narayan is because of his performance in the last election. “Even though he came third, he got over 40,000 votes on his own as AJSU-P doesn’t have any base in Madhupur. In a sense, the BJP candidate lost only because of AJSU-P which ate up our votes after contesting separately. We didn’t want that to happen this time,” he said.
The JMM-Congress-RJD coalition on the other hand will field Hafizul Ansari, son of Haji Hussain Ansari, as the joint candidate. Ansari will fight on a JMM ticket and is expected to file his nomination on March 25, said JMM insiders.