Ranchi: Ahead of the Jharkhand Assembly Elections 2024, leaders of various parties are jumping the ship with BJP leading the parties in giving tickets to turncoats.
Voting for the 81 assembly seats will take place in two phases on November 13 and November 20 while counting is scheduled to be held on November 23.
BJP is leading the parties giving tickets to turncoats with the saffron parties fielding eight leaders, who quit other parties followed by the CM Hemant Soren led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which has fielded seven turncoats. Samajwadi Party comes third fielding six turncoats.
Champai Soren Boost To BJP
Former Chief Minister Champai Soren, who was the close aide of Hemant Soren recently quit the JMM and joined the BJP, which has fielded him from Saraikela. The saffron party, which has been targeting rival parties of nepotism, has also given ticket to Champai Soren's son Babulal Soren from Ghatsila.
The BJP has also fielded JMM's disgruntled leader Lobin Hembram from Borio. In the Lok Sabha elections, he had filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Rajmahal seat, but had to face defeat. The JMM later expelled him from the party for six years. Besides Lobin, Durga Soren's wife Sita Soren has also been given ticket by BJP from Jamtara. Sita Soren had joined BJP before the Lok Sabha elections and was fielded from Dumka, but she lost the election. BJP has also fielded Congress MP Geeta Koda, Madhu Koda's wife from Jagannathpur assembly seat. The saffron party has also fielded Congress' Manju Devi from Jamuwa seat and NCP's Kamlesh Singh and AJSU's Roshan Lal from Hussainabad and Barkagaon respectively.
JMM tickets to rebel candidates
JMM is also not behind in giving tickets to rebel leaders. The party has fielded four BJP rebels, two from AJSU and one leader, who quit the RJD. The turncoats given tickets by the JMM are led by Louise Marandi. It is believed that Louise Marandi wanted a BJP ticket from Dumka assembly seat, but the saffron party fielded Sunil Soren from the seat prompting Louise to join the JMM. JMM has her from Jama seat.
Besides, BJP rebel Ganesh Mahali is the JMM candidate from Seraikela. It is believed that Ganesh wanted a ticket from Seraikela itself, but after Champai Soren joined BJP, the party gave him the ticket. Ganesh had lost to Champai Soren by a slim vote margin in the last assembly election.
The Hemant Soren led JMM has also fielded BJP's Kedar Hazra, from Jamua after he was denied the ticket by the saffron party.
Another BJP leader, Anant Pratap Dev, who quit the saffron party, has been fielded from Bhawanathpur by the JMM. The JMM fielded MT Raja from Rajmahal seat and Umakant Rajak from Chandankiyari after the duo left the AJSU. The JMM has also given tickets to RJD rebel Uday Shankar Singh from Sarath. Likewise, BJP rebel, Lal Suraj has been given ticket by the JMM from Panki seat and Radhakrishna Kishore, who quit the RJD has been fielded from Chhatarpur seat.
SP follows suit in fielding turncoats
Like the BJP and JMM, SP has also given tickets to six turncoats. Among them, four are leaders from RJD while one is from Congress and one is from BSP. SP has fielded RJD rebels Girinath Singh from Garhwa and Mamta Bhuiyan from Chhatarpur.
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