Ranchi, Jan. 21: Former BJP legislator Sukar Ravidas was all smiles today.

Denied the BJP ticket from the Jamua Assembly seat in Giridih district a few days ago, Ravidas had filed his nomination papers as an independent, vowing to ?teach the BJP a lesson?.

Luck, however, soon smiled on him. On January 18, the district election officer, Giridih, rejected the nomination papers of the sitting Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA and former party state chief Baldeo Hazra for the Jamua seat. A shocked RJD, that was quite confident about the seat till then, went into a huddle searching for a ?suitable? replacement for Hazra. The search ended in Ravidas ? a long-time rival of Hazra. The RJD today granted party membership to the former BJP legislator and extended the party?s support to his candidature for the Jamua seat.

Since 1990, the Jamua seat has been witnessing a battle royale between Hazra and Ravidas. Hazra, who began his political adventure as a CPI activist, had first clinched the Jamua seat in 1990 on a CPI ticket, defeating his BJP archrival Ravidas by over 9,500 votes. In the next Assembly poll, in 1995, Ravidas turned the tables on Hazra, defeating him by over 17,000 votes.

In the 2000 Assembly election, Hazra decided to switch camps from the CPI to the RJD. The RJD wave in unified Bihar swept Hazra to victory as he took sweet revenge for his 1995 loss by crushing Ravidas by a record margin of 32,733 votes. Hazra polled 60,838 votes compared to Ravidas who secured a paltry 28,105 votes.

A bitter Hazra told The Telegraph: ?We had been bitter foes for over a decade. However, since both of us are in the same boat now, it is my responsibility to ensure the victory of our party nominee. It is sheer bad luck that my nomination papers were rejected on technical grounds.? The BJP has fielded Kedar Hazra from the seat. Meanwhile, RJD spokesman Manohar Yadav today said that preparations have been completed to contest around 56 out of the 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand, leaving the remaining seats to the CPI, CPM and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).