Mody An Outsider, Cry Bjp, Rjd

The battle for the prestigious Jamshedpur seat, the industrial hub of Bihar, is set to witness a triangular contest between Abha Mahato (BJP), Russi Mody (Independent) and Omkarnath Jaiswal (RJD).

The BJP, with its well-oiled political machinery working round the clock, has an advantage over its rival despite the fact that Russi Mody, former chairman-cum-managing director of Tisco, had made an impact on the citys large workforce.

The BJP, by fielding Abha Mahato (wife of Jharkhand payoff scamster, Shailendra Mahato) had set sights on the Mahato votes to consolidate its position in the constituency which it won in 1996 polls.

 

But BJPs Mahato vote plan has hit a breaker with the recent entry of Sudhir Mahato in the fray as an Independent candidate.

Sudhir Mahato, the former general secretary of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren) who recently rebelled against his party to form his own JMM (Nirmal) faction, will now join Abha Mahato in the fray to vie for more than 100,000 (1 lakh) Mahato votes. JMM (Mardi) chief, Krishna Mardi, has extended his support to Sudhir Mahato.

The BJP says whatever little impact Sudhir Mahato may have will in no way upset its voter base since the party is likely to garner a chunk of RJD votebank following the recent defection of RJD district chief, Dinesh Sarangi, to the BJP.

The impact of Sarangis absence would have a telling impact on RJD candidate Omkarnath Jaiswals performance. He may be relegated to the third spot behind Modi, a senior BJP functionary told Business Standard.

BJP members, in private, acknowledge Modys growing clout among the Steel City workers and the Muslims. The latters stand especially is causing anxiety in the BJP and RJD camp.

As per BJP guesstimates, Russi Mody will fail to elicit the support of seven lakh voters in the rural areas of the constituency. The Jamshedpur constituency has 1.2 million electorates divided broadly into 5 lakh in the city area and 7 lakh in the rural Assambly segments like Bharaghdra, Ghatshila and Rotak.

During the last Lok Sabha elections in 1996, the percentage of votes polled in the constituency was 59,2006 or 660,000. This will go up to 710,000 this time, Says Russi Modi. The reason, he feels, is that fear or retrenchments and uncertainty will spur workers to turn up in large numbers in his favour.

The BJP and RJD have launched whispering campaign branding Russi Mody an outsider who spends most of his time away from the city.

The BJP, sensing massive public resentment against sitting MP Nitish Bhardwaj of Mahabharat serial fans,did not offer him a ticket. RJD had, for quite sometime, been running a campaign that BJP MP had seldom nursed his constituency and that the city was paying a price for choosing an outsider.

The RJD has now shifted the focus on Mody. Mody is countering this campaign with his 53-years of service in the city under Tisco plank. Mody feels his scheme to form Jamshedpur workers Union, which will have 1.5 lakh workers under its banner has clicked with the citys labour force.