Madhu Koda (in black waistcoat) campaigns in Manjhari block under Majhgaon seat on Sunday. (Animesh Sengupta)

Majhgaon (West Singhbhum), Dec. 1: Madhu Koda, Jharkhand’s most controversial former chief minister and BJP’s election fodder, is contesting Majhgaon Assembly for the first time. He is hoping his luck will turn with tomorrow’s polling day at the end of a bad year.

The Jai Bharat Samanta Party chief had been Singhbhum’s sitting MP in 2009, but didn’t contest Lok Sabha polls this year due to “poor health”. He endured the humiliation of his proxy candidate, wife Geeta, who’s the sitting Jagannathpur MLA of his party, getting drubbed by the BJP’s Laxman Gilua.

Recently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) froze his assets. Koda and his close aides are accused of a money laundering scam worth some Rs 2,000 crore, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi refers to as symbolic of the corruption that grips Jharkhand but blames the Congress for setting up Koda as a stooge amid wholesale plunder.

Scam-tainted Koda, who was jailed for four years between 2009 and 2013, is left hoping that he at least gets the MLA berth from Majhgaon, one of the six Assembly seats of Singhbhum.

Though for 10 years, Majhgaon chose representatives from JMM and BJP as its MLAs — Niral Purty in 2005 and Barkunwar Gagrai in 2009 — it was also the only seat under Singhbhum LS where his wife Geeta had a lead over Gilua during parliamentary polls.

As a Ho tribal in an ST constituency, Koda has clout in Majhgaon, 150km from Jamshedpur, where villagers are more impressed by the fact that he had been chief minister from September 2006 to August 2008 than he was jailed from November 2009 to July 2013 for money laundering.

In his pitch, Koda however stressed he worked for development in his stints as minister, chief minister and MP.

“I’ve repaired roads linking Barbharia to Chaibasa, Hatgamharia block to Benisagar, Bolandih to Majhgaon and Majhgaon to Jaintgarh-Noamundi. I’ve played a pivotal role in creating blocks in Jagannathpur, Anantpur, Gudri and Hatgamharia. I’ve bought Kolhan University here. I inaugurated an engineering college at Jhinkpani (in West Singhbhum, which runs in PPP mode with Calcutta-based Techno India),” he said.

The early winter paddy fields are dotted with flags of Koda and BJP candidate Gagrai. This election is a fifty-fifty.

If there’s an embarrassment, it is a dam. The Bada Terlo Dam in Manjhari block in Majhgaon Assembly seat, was built by state water resources department way back in 1980s at a cost of Rs 3 crore. Over 4km long, with three sluice gates and two canals, one incomplete, it could have helped farmers of 29 panchayats of Manjhari, Tantnagar and Kumardungi blocks of Majhgaon. As things stand, the sluice gates are virtually closed for years.

Jaipal Singh Kunkal, zilla parishad member from Manjhari, said the dam, had it functioned the way it should have, would have also boosted fishery and tourism.

Farmers are left to rue their fates. “Panir samasya lagi aamake Odisha jain sal gachor lakdi bikba paduchi (We have to go to sell sal wood in nearby Keonjhar district of Odisha as our farms are dry),” said Sergo Bansingh, a villager of Mohulbera in Manjhari.

“Iss Vidhan Sabha se mein pahli baar chunav ladh raha hoon aur jitne ke baad Bada Terlo Dam ka jirnodhar mere pehla prayas hoga (I am contesting this Assembly seat for the first time. If elected, the dam’s renovation would be my top priority),” promised Koda.

Ask his BJP rival Gagrai, and he says the same. “I raised the issue during 2012 in the Assembly but unfortunately our government fell in early 2013. That’s why I couldn’t repair the dam. If re-elected, this would be my priority,” Gagrai said.

lMajhgaon votes today