Poll dates coming, five opposition Jharkhand MLAs join BJP

While the opposition parties maintained that the desertions will not affect their prospects in the Vidhan Sabha polls, likely to be held later this year, Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who welcomed the five entrants at the party’s state headquarters in Ranchi, asserted, “These leaders stand for a stable government in the state once again.”

Those who joined the BJP are Congress MLAs Manoj Yadav and Sukhdev Bhagat, Kunal Sarangi and J P Bhai Patel (both JMM), and former state Health minister Bhanu Pratap Shahi of Naujawan Sangharsh Morcha.

Sources in state Congress said Bhagat, MLA from Lohardaga and a former state unit chief, was irked with present state Congress president Rameshwar Oraon, while Manoj Yadav, MLA from Barhi, had been “talking about leaving the party for a long time”.

Maintaining that this is not a setback for the party, and that the duo was in no way sidelined, state Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey said, “Both leaders had contested the Parliamentary elections, and had lost. It (joining BJP) is their individual choice. We are looking forward to the Assembly elections.”

Sources in JMM said Baharagora MLA Sarangi was looking for options outside after failing to get a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Jamshedpur constituency.

Patel was suspended from primary membership of JMM in April for six years over indiscipline, after he backed an NDA candidate in the Lok Sabha polls.

Addressing the media, Bhagat and Sarangi maintained that they joined the ruling party inspired by its “nationalism and development (agenda)”, and that the BJP will win more than 65 seats in the 81-member Assembly in the coming elections.