BJP to shift Munda out of Jharkhand

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated former Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda for the coming Lok Sabha elections, making space for new leadership in the state, which is currently under President’s Rule.

Munda’s candidature from Jamshedpur was cleared by the BJP’s central election committee, which met today. The meeting was attended by senior BJP leader LK Advani and party President Rajnath Singh.

Jharkhand had come under President’s rule after the resignation of Shibu Soren, the chief minister of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government, in January. Soren had to quit after his humiliating defeat in the Assembly by-election. The state is likely to have Assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha elections in view of the continuing political uncertainty. The BJP also declared candidates for six other Lok Sabha constituencies from Jharkhand and 12 from Uttar Pradesh (mostly central and eastern areas).

The party has fielded Rajya Sabha member Vinay Katiyar from Sabha Nagar, a Lok Sabha constituency adjoining Faizabad, from where he has been elected twice before. In the 2004 elections, Katiyar, a hardliner known for his role in the demolition of Babri Masjid, had lost from Lakhimpur Kheri.

The BJP has also decided to field Ramashankar Katheria (Agra), Poornima Verma (Hardoi), Ramesh Kumar Singh (Unnao), Laxmi Narayan Pandey (Pratapgarh), Ravinder Shukla (Jhansi), Radhey Shyam Gupta (Fatehpur) Lalta Prasad Mishra (Keshargunj), Satyadev Singh (Shrawasti), Neelam Sonkar (Lalgunj), Vidyasagar Sonkar (Machhlisehar) and Jawahar Jaiswal (Chandauli).

Barring Keshargunj, where former Union minister Arif Mohammad Khan had lost by 1,000-odd votes, the party’s performance in all these constituencies was dismal in the 2004 elections.

In Jharkhand, the candidates are Devidhar Besra (Rajmahal), Sunil Soren ( Dumka), Nishikant Dubey (Godda), Ravindra Pandey (Giridh) Badkunwar Gagrai (Singhbhumi) and Sudarshan Bhagat (Lhargunj).