The rift within the Jharkhand’s ruling NDA has once again come to fore. The All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) has fielded a candidate against the ally BJP in Chakradharpur. The AJSU has named Ramlal Munda as its candidate from here. He will take on BJP’s Laxman Giluwa who is the state unit chief of the saffron party.
Munda’s name figured in the AJSU’s first list of 12 candidates which was released on Monday. There are at least three seats including Chakradharpur where the AJSU has fielded candidates against the partner BJP.
AJSU president Sudesh Kumar Mahto will enter the fray from Silli assembly constituency. Mahto had lost the seat in 2014 assembly polls.
The development comes even as the two parties are yet to finalise the seat-sharing formula. The BJP is facing trouble from its partner which is demanding 16 seats out of 81. In the 2014 elections, the AJSU had contested on 8 seats while the BJP on 73 seats.
The AJSU also named Jharkhand Water Resources Minister Ramchandra Sahis to contest from Jugsalai. It nominated Kushwaha Shiv Pujan Mehta, who won the Hussainabad seat on Bahujan Samaj Party ticket in 2014 assembly elections and recently joined the AJSU. Former minister Umakant Razzak has been re-nominated to contest from Chandankiyari, which he lost in the last polls.
The party has nominated Niru Shanti Bhagat from Lohardaga. She is the wife of party leader Kamal Kishore Bhagat, who won the seat in 2014 but was disqualified after his conviction in a case. In the December 2015 bypolls, Sukhdeo Bhagat of the Congress defeated Niru Shanti Bhagat. Sukhdeo, who held the post of Jharkhand PCC president, joined the BJP last month. He was expecting a ticket from the BJP to contest from Lohardaga.
The Lohardaga seat didn’t figure in the BJP’s first list of 52 candidates announced on Sunday.
The Jharkhand Legislative Assembly has 81 seats. The state will go to polls in five-phase between November 30 and December 20. Counting will be taken up on December 23.