A battle of turncoats in phase I of Jharkhand assembly polls

RANCHI: There are several turncoats in the fray in the 13 seats that are going to polls in the first phase of assembly elections in Jharkhand on Saturday.

The most interesting battle is in Lohardaga, where the Congress party’s former state president, Sukhdev Bhagat, is contesting, but this time as the BJP’s nominee. He is facing a tough fight from the current Congress state chief, former IPS officer Rameshwar Oraon, and Neeru Shanti Bhagat of the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).

In 2014, Bhagat was the Congress candidate in the constituency. Oraon had won the Lohardaga Lok Sabha seat in 2004.

At Chhatarpur, sitting MLA Radhakrishna Kishore has left the BJP after the party denied him ticket, and is contesting as an AJSU nominee.

Bhanupratap Shahi, who had won the Bhawanathpur seat as the nominee of a local political outfit in 2014, has now joined the BJP and is its nominee for the seat in this election. The BJP candidate whom Shahi had defeated five years ago, Anant Pratap Dev, is trying his luck to enter the state assembly as an independent.

At Hussainabad, sitting MLA Shivpujan Mehta has left the Bahujan Samaj Party and is contesting as the AJSU nominee.

Former leader of the Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (JVM), Alok Chaurasia, is the BJP candidate at Daltonganj. Chaurasia was elected on a JVM ticket in 2014 assembly polls, but later joined the BJP and supported the Raghubar Das government.

At Chatra, the BJP has given ticket to Janardan Paswan, who was earlier associated with the Rashtriya Janata Dal in the state. Satyanand Bhokta, who had contested the 2014 polls as the JVM nominee, is now the RJD candidate.