In the sixth phase of polling in Jharkhand scheduled for May 25, four high-profile seats held by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), is at stake.
In the past two general elections, the BJP and its alliance partners had registered wins in all these four Lok Sabha seats – Jamshedpur, Giridih, Ranchi and Dhanbad. The seats are spread across eight districts and comprise 24 Assembly segments.
Also read: India General Elections 2024 Phase 6 LIVE, May 25, 2024
Ranchi, considered the most prestigious seat as it is the State capital, has six Assembly segments - Silli, Khriji, Ranchi, Hatia and Kanke in Ranchi district, and Ichagarh in Saraikela Kharsawan district. After the formation of Jharkhand in 2000, the first general election was held in 2004 when the government under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in power at the Centre. The BJP campaign around “India shining” theme failed to win over voters here and Congress candidate Subodh Kant Sahay defeated sitting BJP MP Ram Tahal Choudhary by margin of 15,421 votes as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) formed the government at the Centre.
In 2009, Mr. Sahay repeated his performance and defeated Mr. Tahal, though by a narrow margin of 1,350 votes. However, in 2014, Mr. Tahal finally returned the favour by a huge margin of 1,99,303 votes and share of 42.74% votes, as a “Modi wave” swept the region. In 2019, BJP fielded a new candidate, Sanjay Seth, against Mr. Sahay and this time, the BJP candidate trounced him by an even bigger margin. Mr. Seth got 7,06,828 votes (57.21% vote share) while Mr. Sahay polled 4,23,802 votes (34.3%).
In 2024, BJP has yet again put its trust on the sitting MP, and he is up against the Congress’s Yashaswini Sahay, daughter of Mr. Sahay.
The importance of the seat could be understood from the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have held road shows in Ranchi in support of the BJP candidate.
Jamshedpur is yet another important seat which is unique in itself. Popularly known as the Steel City of India, it is the only Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand encompassing only one district (East Singhbhum). Out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, 13 are spread over two to three districts, with the lone exception of Jamshedpur. It has six Assembly seats – Baharagora, Ghatshila, Potka, Jugsalai, Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West. Jamshedpur East is held by Independent MLA Saryu Roy and the Congress’s Banna Gupta holds Jamshedpur West, while the rest of the segments are held by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
Two-term BJP MP Bidyut Baran Mahato is looking forward to a record hat-trick in Jamshedpur, which is also known as “Tatanagar”, boasting one of the oldest and largest steel plants. Mr. Mahato is locked in a direct contest against JMM candidate Samir Mohanty, the sitting MLA from Baharagora Assembly seat.
The BJP won this seat for the first time way back in 1996 with the popular Nitish Bharadwaj, best known for playing Lord Krishna in the television epic Mahabharata, winning here.
After the formation of Jharkhand, JMM won this seat in 2004 when Sunil Mahato defeated Abha Mahato of the BJP. In 2009, former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda won this seat by getting the better of Mr. Sunil Mahato. In 2019, the incumbent Chief Minister Champai Soren had faced defeat here.
Being a general category seat, the tribal-oriented JMM is also banking upon votes of the general-category Mohanty community which constitutes around 21% of the total electorate, second only to the tribal vote, which is around 28%.
Giridih is another BJP bastion that now sees a triangular contest. Spread across three districts - Bokaro, Dhanbad and Giridhi - it has six Assembly segments including Dumri, Giridih, Gomia, Bermo, Tundi and Baghmara.
The BJP has won this seat five times starting from 1989, when Ramdas Singh got 35.2% votes and Independent candidate Vinod Bihari Mahato had secured 31.5% votes, pushing the Congress candidate Sarfaraz Ahmad to third place with 26.9% votes.
This time, the main contest is between sitting MP Chandra Prakash Choudhary of the All India Students Union (AJSU), an NDA partner, and Mathura Prasad Mahato of JMM, the sitting MLA of Tundi Assembly seat. However, with the entry of Jairam Mahato as an Independent candidate, it is now a three-party fight. Mr. Jairam Mahato is a popular student leader who earned fame by launching the campaign against the “60:40 Nai Chalto” reservation policy in government jobs, wherein 60% jobs were earmarked for aspirants of the State.
Earlier, Ravindra Kumar Pandey of BJP had won Giridih seat five times starting from 1996. The JMM won Giridih seat twice, first in 1991 and then in 2004.
The Dhanbad seat is spread over two districts and six Assembly segments including Bokaro, Chandankiyari, Sindri, Nirsa, Dhanbad and Jharia. The BJP has fielded Baghmara MLA Dhullu Mahato as their candidate and he is up against Congress’s Anupama Singh. The BJP has dropped three-term MP Pasthupati Nath Singh for this election. Last time, Mr. Singh had defeated Congress candidate and cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad. Dhanbad is a coal-mining hub. Mr. Singh may not have it easy this time, as Siddharth Gautam alias Manish Singh, a scion of the “Singh Mansion” family, has extended support to the Congress candidate. The youngest son of former MLA of Jharia, late Suryadeo Singh, a coal mafia don who was once hailed as the “King of Mining City”, is the general secretary of trade union Janata Mazdoor Sangh, which has very good influence over the coal workers.
