AJSU chief fancies himself to be 'Uddhav'; but Jharkhand has no Pawar

Political sources said Mahto's equation with the BJP's incumbent CM, Raghubar Das, was "indifferent".

Some would imagine it was either foolhardy or brave of Sudesh Mahto to jump into the Jharkhand battle-ground alone, without his old ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to handhold. Mahto, who heads the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), lost the Ranchi Lok Sabha election in 2014. And in 2018, he was trounced in a by-poll by a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) greenhorn from Silli, his former borough in Ranchi district.

His close AJSU aides would not confirm but Ranchi’s political chatter had it that Mahto decided to discard the BJP the day the Maharashtra and Haryana election outcomes became