New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and JMM leader and Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren will launch the INDIA bloc’s campaign at a joint rally in Ranchi on April 21. “This joint rally will mark the start of the alliance poll campaign. The alliance is fighting against the BJP strongly and will win several seats,” AICC general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand Ghulam Ahmed Mir told ETV Bharat.
In the previous 2019 national polls, the BJP and AJSU had contested in alliance. The BJP had contested 13 out of 14 seats and won 11 while the AJSU had won the lone seat it contested. The UPA had contested 13 seats, but won two. The Congress had contested seven seats and won one, JMM had contested four seats and won one while JVM contested two seats, but could not win any.
However, in the 2019 Assembly polls held after the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress-JMM-RJD alliance formed an alliance government headed by former Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who the ED arrested in January this year in an alleged corruption case. In a clever move, Hemant Soren resigned from the top post before he was arrested and the JMM-Congress alliance elected senior leader Champai Soren as the new Chief Minister. In 2024, as part of the INDIA bloc, the Congress is contesting seven seats, JMM five seats, RJD one seat and CPI-ML one seat.
Due to security concerns in the Naxal-affected tribal state, polling across the 14 parliamentary seats will occur in four phases on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1. The state had four-phase polling in 2019 as well. “Hemant Soren was arrested and the BJP made later attempts to poach the alliance MLAs to destabilise the alliance government. But, we foiled their plan and won the trust vote. The BJP does this across the country and the people are angry with them. They will teach a lesson to the BJP this time,” minister and senior Congress leader Alamgir Alam told ETV Bharat.
“Besides the targeting of opposition leaders through central agencies, the issues of unemployment and price rise would also dominate our campaign. We will educate the voters about the 25 guarantees of the Congress. The work done by the coalition government in the state over the past five years would also be publicised during the campaign,” he said.
Since the arrest of Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren has become politically active and will also attend the INDIA bloc rally in Ranchi on April 21, along with CM Champai Soren. Recently, Kalpana addressed the opposition group’s rallies in Mumbai on March 17 and in Delhi on April 3 where she spoke passionately about tribal pride and urged the voters to defeat the BJP.
Out of the seven Congress seats, Kalicharan Munda is fighting from Khunti, Sukhdeo Bhagat from Lohardaga and JP Patel from Hazaribagh. The party is yet to announce candidates for the remaining four seats Ranchi, Chatra, Godda and Dhanbad seats. While former union minister Subodh Kant Sahay wants to contest from Ranchi, state unit chief Rajesh Thakur may be fielded from Dhanbad.
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