RANCHI: Dropping five sitting MPs in Jharkhand, the BJP has fielded Sita Soren from Dumka, Dhulu Mahto from Dhanbad and Kalicharan Singh from Chatra Lok Sabha seats.
Sita replaced Sunil Soren, Mahto replaced PN Singh while Kalicharan Singh replaced Sunil Singh. The other two dropped are Hazaribagh MP Jayant Sinha and Lok Sabha MP Sudarshan Bhagat.
Sita, elder daughter-in-law of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren and three times MLA from Jama Assembly seat in Dumka, was married to Durga Soren, elder brother of Hemant Soren. Durga Soren passed away in 2009 at the age of 39, after which she entered politics and got elected from Jama Assembly seat in 2009.
Sita resigned from the primary membership of JMM on March 19 this year, accusing it of isolating her and hatching a conspiracy against her family. Within hours of her resignation from the party and Assembly membership, she joined the saffron party in New Delhi.
Mahto was first elected from the Baghmara Assembly constituency in 2009 on a ticket from the Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (JVM) of Babulal Marandi, who formed the party after parting ways with the BJP.
Mahto, a controversial MLA who is facing more than two dozen cases, joined the BJP in 2014 and was elected MLA from the same constituency a second time. In the 2019, Mahto retained his seat from the Baghmara constituency making a hat-trick.
Sitting MP PN Singh, who was elected from Dhanbad Assembly seat in 2009, 2014 and 2019, was apparently dropped due to his old age.
Sunil Singh, who had defeated Shibu Soren in 2019 Lok Sabha polls with a significant margin, is said to have been dropped due to non-performance.
Notably, names of 11 candidates were announced in the first list released by the BJP on March 2, in which seven are old faces. The second list was released on March 24 which included all new faces.
Sunil Soren, who was included in the first list from Dumka, was dropped in the second list, and Sita was included in his place. AJSU, an ally of the BJP in Jharkhand, will field its candidates from one seat, Giridih.
Both the parties had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together. Presently Chandra Prakash Choudhary is the AJSU MP from Giridih.
In the BJP first list, Geeta Koda, who recently joined the saffron party, got a ticket from Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat.
Among the new faces are Hazaribagh (Sadar) MLA Manish Jaiswal from Hazaribag Lok Sabha, which happens to be a traditional BJP seat. Jaiswal replaced former Union minister Jayant Sinha after the latter expressed inability to contest from the seat.
Tala Marandi replaced Hemlal Murmu for Rajmahal seat. Murmu had lost the seat in the 2019 polls to JMM’s Vijay Hansda.
The Lohardaga Lok Sabha seat, which was won by former Union Minister Sudarshan Bhagat, has been given to Rajya Sabha MP Sameer Oraon, whose tenure is ending this year.