In Jharkhand it?s being touted as the battle between the Maoists and the ex-Maoists. Against the backdrop of the poll boycott call given by the CPI(Maoist), the presence of its former zonal commander, Yugal Pal alias Madan Pal, as the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha candidate in Bishrampur has split the Maoists.
While the CPI(Maoist) expelled him after he filed his nomination and the Naxals set afire his election office in Bishrampur on December 8 describing him as a ?traitor?, Pal, who was in jail facing more than two dozen cases of murder, arson, extortion and illegal possession of arms, is relying on his son Satish, a student doing a software course at the Ranchi-based NIIT, and wife Shobha to mobilise support for him.
Issues relating to hunger, drought and development dominate elections in Maoist-affected Bishrampur. There is no industry and no irrigation facilities worth the name. Here, agriculture is dependent on the vagaries of nature. Since less than 10% of its population owns more than 60% of its cultivable land, migration has been a means of survival for the majority, leaving the ground wide open for the Maoists to flourish.
Bishrampur was a Congress bastion till 2000, when it elected its nominee Dadai Dubey as its MLA. In 2004, Dubey was elected as the MP from Dhanbad. In his absence, the RJD?s Ramchandra Chandravanshi wrested this seat from the Congress. This time, Pal is locked in a four-cornered contest between Chandravanshi, Congress?s Dadai Dubey and the JD(U)?s CS Dubey.
Asked why her husband left the CPI(Maoist), Shobha said, ?Due to atrocities committed by landlords, he had picked up arms. Now, the people are resorting to violence because of hunger and unemployment. These problems can be addressed with development which is possible through the ballot.?
The two Dubeys seem happy that the Maoists are opposing Pal. ?Pal always had a big following in this belt. After he entered the fray, most of them had rallied around him. Some others had stuck to their guns. The fight between them will help us,? said Nandkishore Dubey, an election agent of Dadai echoing the sentiments of CS Dubey.
But Pal?s election agent, Satish Kumar, brother of JMM MP Kameshwar Baitha, CPI(Maoist)?s ex-zonal commander, who had won the Lok Sabha election from Palamau, has a different tale. ?We are from the Maoist background. We have the support of the masses. We will win hands down,? said Satish.
