After taking the lead in declaring candidates, Bharatiya Janata Party is now engaged in a campaign to stop the rebellion in Jharkhand. BJP’s election in-charge in the state Shivraj Singh Chauhan and co-in-charge Himanta Biswa Sarma both went to the house of former party state president and former MP Ravindra Rai on Monday, October 21 to convince him. Angered at not getting the ticket, Ravindra Rai was preparing to contest the elections as an independent candidate from his old seat Raj Dhanwar. BJP state president and undeclared CM contender Babulal Marandi is contesting on this seat. After meeting Ravindra Rai, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that BJP has to face rebellion on only two seats but JMM has problems on every seat. But actually the situation is the opposite. BJP is facing rebellion on half the seats in Jharkhand.
Lewis Marandi has given the biggest blow to BJP. Ever since Babulal Marandi left Santhalpargana, Lewis Marandi was holding the BJP flag in this area. He defeated Hemant Soren from Dumka seat in the 2014 elections. This time, instead of him, BJP made Dumka MP Sunil Soren its candidate. Angered by this, Lewis Marandi has joined JMM. Along with him, many other former MLAs like Kunal Shadangi, Laxman Tudu, Uday Singh alias Chunna Singh have also joined JMM, due to which BJP will face problems from Kolhan to Santhalpargana.
The number of leaders or former MLAs angry with BJP is not that much. While Satyanand Jha Batul has left the party, former ministers Raj Paliwar and Mistry Soren are also looking at their options. Strong BJP leader Ganesh Mahali, who lost the seat due to Champai Soren, has also announced to contest the elections as an independent. There is a long list of BJP leaders who are angry after the announcement of the candidates and are preparing to contest as independents or join JMM, Congress or sit quietly and oppose the BJP. Recently, NDA’s Umakant Rajak and Kedar Hazra also joined JMM.
Sandeep Verma, who is preparing for the assembly elections from Ranchi seat, has asked many questions to the BJP leadership in a press conference and said that if satisfactory answers are not received then rebel independents of BJP will stand on many seats. It is noteworthy that Sandeep Verma, who was associated with Babulal Marandi’s party JVM, had joined BJP along with him. He has asked that the party should explain the reason for giving tickets to Meera Munda, Babulal Soren, Purnima Das and Ramprakash Chaudhary. He says that these people have got tickets only because they belong to the family of some leader. He has no contribution in the party. He has also asked questions on making the MPs Geeta Koda, Sita Soren etc. who lost the Lok Sabha elections as candidates. Sandeep Verma was the state president and is a close relative of Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash. So, BJP leaders will have to stop rebellion not on one or two seats, but on dozens of seats.