‘Local vs VIP’ debate plays out in this Jharkhand seat
Kalpana Soren has emerged as one of the star campaigners for not only JMM but also the INDIA bloc.
The Gandey assembly seat in Jharkhand’s Giridih district is all set to witness a contest between a high-profile incumbent legislator and her little-known challenger. The presence of Kalpana Soren, wife of chief minister Hemant Soren, has ensured this unreserved constituency emerge as one of the most keenly watched seats in the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Kalpana Soren, who entered active politics following her husband’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate over money laundering charges linked to a land deal case on January 30 this year, has emerged as one of the star campaigners for not only the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) but also her party-led INDIA bloc. She made her electoral debut by winning the assembly bypoll from Gandey — held along with the Lok Sabha polls this summer — defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Dilip Verma by over 27,000 votes.
In the upcoming two-phased Jharkhand assembly elections scheduled on November 13 and November 20, Soren is eyeing a second term — first full term — from this unreserved seat, which is part of the Koderma Lok Sabha constituency.
Her challenger is a fellow woman, BJP’s Munia Devi, who is also the Giridih zilla parishad head. Devi, who belongs to the Kushwaha community, had joined the BJP a year ago. The nomination of Devi, whose parents hail from Gandey, is widely seen as the BJP’s attempt to stir local vs VIP debate.
“This is a lopsided contest between Kalpana Soren, who is the daughter-in-law of JMM chief Shibu Soren, and Munia Devi, who belongs to the farmer’s family and is a zilla parishad chief,” a voter in the constituency said, declining to be named.
Demography and recent history
The Gandey assembly constituency has a total of 269,330 voters, dominated by Hindus comprising 56% of the electors. The constituency also has a sizeable Muslim population accounting for 32% of the voters.
Political observers maintain that the electoral outcome in the constituency is largely decided by which side the Santhal community and the Muslims vote.
In the Lok Sabha elections this June, the BJP held a sizeable lead of nearly 25,000 votes in the Gandey assembly segment, which was key to its candidate Annapurna Devi emerging victorious from the Koderma parliamentary seat. Devi is currently the women and child development minister in the NDA-led Union government.
In the 2019 assembly elections, JMM’s Sarfaraz Ahmed won from Gandey against BJP’s Jai Prakash Verma, who had defeated JMM’s Salkhan Soren in 2014.
The poll pitch
Kalpana Soren, after becoming the Gandey legislator in June, has been focussing on various developmental work, including road construction. In her poll campaign, Soren is raising the incarceration of her CM husband, calling for a revenge.
“My husband Hemant Soren was sent to jail as part of a conspiracy. Every worker (of JMM) suffered this pain for five months... In the upcoming assembly elections, we have to wipe out the Opposition and take revenge for sending Hemant Soren to jail,” she said while addressing a poll rally in her constituency recently.
Her opponent Munia Devi is targeting the JMM-led government in the state, accusing it of not doing anything for the constituency in the last five years.
“During the five years of governance, the JMM government has done nothing for Gandey. Sitting MLA never return to the constituency after winning election,” Devi said in her campaign rally.
BJP’s Dilip Verma, who lost to Kalpana Soren in the bypoll, said: “People expected development thinking that the wife of the chief minister will do something for the constituency but nothing like that happened. The constituency continues to lag behind in education,” Verma said.
Which of the two candidates — the high-profile incumbent or the little-known zilla parishad chief — will have the last laugh will become clear on November 23.
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