Dumka/Jama, Dec. 17: These days, JMM patriarch Shibu Soren's residence at Kahjuria in Dumka paints the perfect family picture.

The three active politicians of the family - Soren Senior, his chief minister son Hemant Soren, who is contesting the Assembly polls from both Dumka and Barhait, and bahu and Jama MLA Sita Soren - are staying under the same roof, just like any other joint family.

Yes, you read that right.

Sita, the widow of Soren's elder son Durga and accused in two high-profile cases under CBI lens, is back in the household of Jharkhand's First Family, that too as an integral part of it.

The legislator, who rode to victory on the sympathy wave after the death of her husband in 2009, had drifted apart from the family apparently because of her dewar Hemant's growing closeness with her father-in-law.

But that was another day and time. At present, Hemant is regularly campaigning in Jama to boost up the winning prospects of bhabhi Sita.

'I love to stay with my family, baba (Shibu Soren) and my dewar (Hemant Soren) are helping me to win this election,' Sita told The Telegraph while leaving the Kahjuria residence today.

But it's a tough battle out there for Sita, who found herself in the CBI net along with father B.N. Manjhi in connection with the 2012 Rajya Sabha cash-for-vote case. Again, she made headlines for allegedly kidnapping and beating up a former aide, who had turned a CBI witness against her in the cash stash case.

She surrendered in the Rajya Sabha case in February this year after the court ordered attachment of property and procured bail in September.

But the Soren bahu brushes aside the allegations against her with a 'People don't ask me about this because they know that I was implicated under a conspiracy'.

Truth be told, voters are not happy with her performance.

Jama, like Dumka, is a tough constituency battling three main problems - health, education and drinking water - the main mainstays of development.

This is perhaps why Sita needs to be nervous about college-goers like Neha, who feel that nothing has been done to boost education in the region.

'I go to Dumka (20km away)every day to attend classes because there is no college here. Whoever is elected this time must do something for the education system. School education is equally poor,' said the student of Women's College, Dumka, who will be voting for the first time.

The only community health centre at Jama that reports maximum number of typhoid and kala-azar cases is running with the help of a single doctor and in-charge Satyavati Hembrom. Hembrom wants leave for Christmas, but her request has been turned down as there is no one to fill in for her.

Sita knows the reality too.

'In the coming five years, I will focus on higher education and irrigation,' she promised.

Easier said than done.

Of the 14 other candidates in the fray, the JMM nominee's main challenger is the BJP's Suresh Murmu, who had his grooming in politics right from his RSS days. The BJP further got a shot in the arm today after Kanhai Dehri of the CPI, having influence among Paharia voters, extended support to it.

'The contest is between BJP and JMM. The margin (victory) will be very thin. But the real issue is that our basic problems were not solved in the five-year tenure of Sita Soren. She could not take care of her constituency because she either remained absconding or stayed in jail,' said Mritunjay Kumar, a local trader.

But Sita is trying to make the best use of her dead husband's legacy and doesn't fail to invoke his name at every rally. Even her campaign posters mention Durga. 'He gave me a big task to serve the people,' is her oft-quoted line during campaign trails.

People mostly find her speeches to be hollow. 'Durga babu was a man of different stature. After him, all his trusted men were thrown out. People are still affectionate towards Durga even if he is no more. But she (Sita) has fallen into wrong company,' summed up one Mata Prasad.

Jama votes on December 20