Ranchi/New Delhi, Nov. 1: Congress today announced names of 14 candidates and finalised a seat-sharing arrangement with RJD and JDU, barely 24 hours after its alliance with the JMM collapsed.
Among the 14 names was the surprising inclusion of sitting MLA from Mahgama Rajesh Ranjan, who is likely to be chargesheeted soon by the CBI in the Rajya Sabha cash-for-vote scam of 2010.
After a marathon meeting of the central election committee in Delhi, the party decided to let Lalu Prasad’s RJD fight from 10 seats and JDU from five seats among the 81 Assembly constituencies of the state.
Sources said two seats were likely to be given to former chief minister Madhu Koda’s Jai Bharat Samanta party.
“RJD had been asking for 17 seats but that was not feasible as we had to accommodate JDU as well,” said B.K. Hariprasad, Congress general secretary in charge of Jharkhand.
“After holding talks with their senior leaders, we have decided that 15 seats would be given to the two parties. These seats would be where they had sitting MLAs or had done fairly well during the last state election,” he explained.
Candidates in the first phase of polls for 13 Assembly seats are Bobby Bhagat (Bishunpur), Sukhdeo Bhagat (Lohardaga), Muneshwar Oraon (Manika), sitting Independent MLA Bidesh Singh (Panki), sitting MLA and minister K.N. Tripathi (Daltonganj), Ajay Dubey (Bishrampur), sitting MLA Anant Pratap Dev (Bhawnathpur) and former IAS Binod Kispotta (Gumla).
The remaining seats of Chatra, Latehar, Hussainabad and Garhwa are in the RJD’s fold. While Chhatarpur will remain with the JDU — party leader Sudha Choudhary won from there last time — Chatra and Hussainabad have sitting RJD MLAs. The Congress named HRD minister Geetashree Oraon (Sisai), agriculture minister Banna Gupta (Jamshedpur West), minister Rajendra Prasad Singh (Bermo), minister Mannan Mallick (Dhanbad) and sitting MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad (Gandey), besides Ranjan ( Mahgama).
All these Assembly constituencies will vote in the second and third phases respectively.
“We have continued with our ‘sitting-getting’ formula. The list released today also includes names of some candidates whose constituencies don’t go to polls in the first phase,” explained a party senior.
Ranjan’s ticket has understandably not gone down well with the part rank and file. The Mahgama MLA was being investigated for being allegedly caught on camera, along with other MLAs, seeking money in exchange for his vote in the 2010 Rajya Sabha election.
But the most striking feature of the list of candidates was the absence of Bhagat’s bete noire Rameshwar Oraon, who was pitching for the Manika seat.
