JMM leader and Seraikela MLA Champai Soren on Monday filed his nomination for Jamshedpur seat. He went in a procession to Gandak Road ground in Sakchi accompanied by Congress state president Ajoy Kumar, Congress MLA and CLP leader Alamgir Alam, Pradeep Balmuchu, RJD state president Gautam Sagar Rana, JVM central committee secretary, Abhay Kumar Singh and JMM central secretary, Supriyo Bhattacharjee and Baharagora MLA Kunal Sarangi.
“I promise the people that if I am elected no houses of poor will be demolished in city areas and corporate will not exploit temporary workers in the name of making registration cards. No one will be displaced from their houses,” said Champai Soren. He expressed concern over mass resentment in non-company areas in Jamshedpur especially in Bagbera and Birsanagar after demolition of houses citing them as illegal and for development projects.
Ajoy Kumar, who is a former Jamshedpur MP, termed the BJP government as majdoor virodhi (anti-workers) and anti-tribals. The Congress state president focussed on demolition of houses, unemployment and closure of schools to strike a connect with urban voters.
On the other hand NDA leaders led by Chief Minister Raghubar Das focused on development projects planned for tribal dominated rural areas in Ho-dominated Singhbhum Parliamentary constituency at the Gandhi Maidan in Chaibasa.
The meeting was organised after filing of nomination by BJP candidate and state party president Laxman Gilua.
For the records, none of the six assembly seats under Singhbhum constituency (Majhgaon, Manoharpur, Chakradharpur, Seraikela, Jagannathpur and Chaibasa) is held by BJP though Laxman Gilua is the sitting MP, giving enough reasons for the party to draw a strategy attracting rural votes.
In contrast, only one seat (Baharagora) under Jamshedpur Parliamentary constituency is held by JMM while the remaining five (Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, Jugsalai, Ghatshila and Pokta) are held by NDA which has made JMM candidate and gathbandhan partners, make strategy to woo urban voters , after being confident of getting tribal and dalit votes in rural pockets.
In 2014, BJP candidate from Singhbhum seat Laxan Gilua defeated his rival and Jai Bharat Samanta Party (JBSP) candidate Geeta Koda by a margin of 87476 votes. Gilua had maintained a steady lead in five of the six assembly segments in the Singhbhum Lok Sabha constituency. The five assembly segments where Gilua continued to register his lead were Chaibasa, Jagannathpur, Seraiklea, Chakradharpur and Manoharpur. There were in all 12 candidates in the fray for Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat in 2014 which has 9,57.406 voters.
