Ranchi, April 27: Congress has decided not to field a candidate in Godda, while the BJP, which announced candidates for the two May 16 byelections yesterday, is facing some internal resistance with its choice.

BJP will be fielding Amit Kumar Mandal, son of late Raghunandan Mandal, a former MLA from Godda, while Lal Suraj, son of former JD-U minister, late Madhu Singh, will be fighting from Panki, as per a statement issued by BJP's central election committee secretary J.P. Nadda.

The Congress believes its support for the RJD in Godda would hopefully translate into support for its own candidate in Panki where Devendra Singh, alias Bittu, the son of former Panki MLA, late Bidesh Singh, filed nomination papers today. Now he will be pitted against the JMM's Kushwaha Shashi Bhushan Mehta, who also filed his nomination today.

State Congress president Sukhdev Bhagat, who returned from Delhi this afternoon after meeting Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, said its decision to support the RJD candidate in Godda was final. "Yes, it is official now. We have fielded Devendra in Panki and will extend support to the RJD candidate in Godda," he said.

Within the state BJP, not all seem to be happy about the party's choice of candidates, especially chief minister Raghubar Das, who is learnt to have expressed his dissatisfaction with the candidature of Lal Suraj, who joined the party only on Monday.

"Lal Suraj fought as a JMM nominee in the 2014 elections. He had other party affiliations also. The BJP should not have considered him as a nominee in place of grassroots leaders, who have been active for so long. For Godda too, giving a ticket to the son of a former MLA does not look good. What about other deserving candidates?" said a senior BJP leader of Jharkhand.

JVM has already declared support for the RJD candidate in Godda and the Congress candidate in Panki. A joint press conference of Congress, RJD and JVM is likely to be held soon, claimed party sources.

Both Godda and Panki seats are likely to see triangular contests on May 16. The last date for filing nominations is April 29. Campaigning is expected to start only after May 2, the last date for withdrawing nominations.

After the Raghubar Das government came to power in the state in December 2014, the Congress has won one byelection, that of Lohardaga where Bhagat defeated the Ajsu-BJP candidate.

 

CANDIDATES

PANKI
Lal Suraj (BJP), Devendra Singh (Cong), Kushwaha Shashi Bhushan Mehta (JMM) 

GODDA
Amit K Mandal (BJP), Sanjiv Marik (JMM), Sanjay Prasad Yadav (RJD)