Four ex-Maoists inducted into AJSU

Mahto inducted former self-styled zonal commander of the CPI (Maoist) Satish Kumar, ex-Maoists Jugal Pal and his wife Shobha at a party function here, praising them for shunning the path of violence and believing in parliamentary system of democracy

The trio had unsuccessfully contested 2009 assembly polls on JMM tickets.

Mahto had inducted another former Maoist Rampati Ganju alias Paramanandji Mahto in Latehar district earlier this month.

Ganju, who was arrested six years ago and released on bail recently, had been the self-styled sub-zonal commander of CPI(Maoist) and was wanted in several Naxal-related cases.

In a separate function at Panki today, Mahato embraced former Jharkhand minister Madhu Singh and enrolled him as a primary member of Ajsu party.

Singh was a leader of the erstwhile Samata Party before it merged with Janata Dal (United).

He later quit Janata Dal (U) and joined the RJD.

He was a minister in the erstwhile Babulal Marandi-led government between November 15, 2000 and March, 2002 and then was a cabinet minister in the Arjun Munda government till 2005 before losing the assembly elections that year.