Hazaribagh, Dec. 8: The prestigious Assembly constituency of Hazaribagh is poised for a bizarre battle.
While the apparent contest is between Congress nominee Jai Shankar Pathak and BJP challenger Manish Jaiswal, Independent candidate Pradip Prasad, who is said to be enjoying the tacit support of some top guns from both party camps, may curiously emerge as the dark horse.
Pathak (43) - a Hindu College alumnus and son of former Barkatha MLA Lambodar Pathak who entered the fray after Congress's sitting MLA Saurabh Narain Singh mysteriously refused to contest - is banking on daddy's goodwill and his clean image and vision for development to buffer the tsuNaMo that industrialist Jaiswal, a JVM defector, may ride high on.
Jaiswal (49), on the other hand, is striving hard to break a family jinx. While father Braj Kishore had tried his luck in the 2004 parliamentary polls only to be humiliated, Jaiswal junior himself had contested the 2012 Mandu bypoll as a JVM hopeful and suffered defeat. So, 2014 is a do-or-die battle for the industrialist who has been campaigning in each and every pocket of Hazaribagh Sadar with NaMo on his lips.
However, a third factor - or rather a political foe - is working overtime and in a clandestine manner to scuttle calculations of the Big Two. Meet Pradip Prasad (44), a former Ajsu leader, who is said to have loyal supporters in both urban and rural areas of the constituency.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Prasad conceded that he had 'the support of some powerful leaders of both the Congress and the BJP', but refused to name any. A close aide of Saurabh Narain in the Congress, Dinesh Singh, however, minced no words to confirm his allegiance to the Independent camp.
It is also widely speculated that the 40-year-old royal scion, who had invaded the erstwhile BJP bastion of Hazaribagh in 2004 by trouncing veteran leader Deo Dayal Kushwaha and repeated his performance in the 2009 Assembly elections, but strangely opted out this time, is backing Prasad.
'I have been a social worker for two years and people know what I have done for them. They also know what I can do if elected,' Prasad said.
There is another factor that may work to the Independent candidate's advantage. In its dogged effort to wrest the seat from Congress, the BJP has nominated a hopeful from whom few in the party have much hope.
Jaiswal exuded confidence nonetheless. Apart from the Narendra Modi wave, Jaiswal is banking on his 2009 win in the Hazaribagh municipal polls when he was elected vice-chairman of the board. Also, his father Braj Kishore is, currently, the chairman. 'Voters will once again repose faith in the party. I will work for the people without discrimination,' he stressed.
Pathak countered the BJP candidate. 'I have worked hard within the party and know ground realities better. The Congress will keep the seat. All I need is mandate,' he said.
Bhaiya Sandeep, an aide of the Independent candidate, may have the last word. 'Whatever the claims of the Congress and the BJP, this seat will throw up an unexpected result,' he said.
- Hazaribagh votes today