Opinion JMM often bitten, never shy
Shibu Soren announced Savita Mahato as RS candidate, then changed its mind. In 2008, Soren nominated Delhi’s Kishori Lal rather than his son; he lost. In 2010, JMM chose K D Singh, who is now with Trinamool Congress.
The JMM, or Shibu Soren to be precise, announced Monday last week that Savita Mahato would be its candidate for one of two Rajya Sabha seats heading for polls. Savita is the wife of Sudhir Mahato, a former deputy chief minister who died January 22. However, after she travelled from Jamshedpur to Ranchi Tuesday morning to file her papers, she was asked to go back. The JMM had changed its mind after the RJD and Congress pressured it to support the former’s candidate. Savita was promised a third seat, that of K D Singh, after the Alchemist group’s chairman emeritus resigned the Jharkhand seat with the Trinamool Congress having fielded him from West Bengal.
Apart from insensitivity, what the episode shows that nothing has changed in the way the JMM approaches Rajya Sabha elections, despite having suffered in the past. In 2008, Shibu Soren chose to nominate Delhi-based Kishori Lal over his son Durga Soren. He lost to Parimal Nathwani, who had managed to get 11 of the JMM’s 17 MLAs as proposers. In 2010, the JMM chose K D Singh, who won but went on to join the Trinamool. In 2012, the party’s successful nominee was Sanjeev Kumar, long-time legal adviser to Soren.
The 2010 and 2012 Rajya Sabha elections from the state, too, are the subjects of ongoing CBI inquiries. Raids have been conducted in the houses of JMM, RJD, Congress and BJP legislators. In 2012, the BJP was embarrassed after NRI Anshuman Mishra made a push to become the party’s candidate from the state and, when unsuccessful, made allegations against party leaders.
Even being passive can mean playing into someone’s hands. The JVM(P), apparently for the sake of a clean image, announced it will not support or nominate any candidate. What looked like a brave decision has ended up helping the BJP and AJSU successfully nominate Parimal Nathwani. With the 11 JVM legislators out of the equation, the BJP-AJSU combine came to have the required numbers.
The BJP holds the seat but chose to support the independent. Nathwani is a Reliance Industries group president and lives in Gujarat. What former speaker and BJP leader C P Singh said outside the assembly Tuesday encapsulated the Jharkhand condition: that Nathwani deserves their support as he has done the best work among all parliamentarians from the state.
Deepu is a senior correspondent based in Ranchi
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