Shashank Shekhar
Ranchi ( Jharkhand) : One of the smallest parliamentary constituency (PC) of Jharkhand, ‘Koderma, comprising six assembly segments located in three districts : Giridih, Hazaribagh, and Koderma, is set to witness a fierce triangular contest among former chief minister Babulal Marandi (JVM), former senior Jharkhand RJD minister Annapurna Devi, who recently switched over to the BJP, and senior CPI (ML) leader Raj Kumar Yadav who is no pushover in this election. The six assembly segments under Koderma PC are : Koderma, Barkathha, Dhanwar, Bagodar, Jamua, and Gandey.
With 17.79 lakhs plus voters under its fold, Koderma has always been regarded as strong bastion of the BJP whose candidate Ravindra Rai, who has been denied ticket this time, had won this seat in 2014 LS polls by more than 98,000 votes defeating CPI(ML) candidate Raj Kumar Yadav while JMM candidate Pranav Verma was relegated to the third position. Ravindra Rai had polled 3.65 lakh votes was elected MP for the first time in 2014. Babulal has been elected from this seat twice while Raj Kumar Yadav finished a close second twice from the seat.
Dominated by Yadav, Muslim and Mahtos, who account for 6.50 lakh votes, Koderma PC also nests 1.50 lakh Bhumihars and 2 lakhs tribal and schedule caste besides mixed population.
As Babulal Marandi is Mahagathbandan candidate and Ravindra Rai ( Bhumihar) has been denied ticket, the former is hopeful of polling most of the votes of Muslim, tribal, OBC, schedule caste and even Bhumihar along with good support of Yadavs.
BJP candidate Annapurna Devi is heavily banking on BJP wave besides Mahtos who have always been supporters of saffron party along with urban voters and youth besides Yadavs.
Raj Kumar Yadav is again banking on his party cadre voters besides Yadavs which fetched him more than 2.65 lakh votes in 2014 election.
Annapurna Devi takes credit for several developmental works and projects that have come up in Koderma including commissioning of Koderma thermal plant besides running of train services between Koderma and Hazaribagh along with construction of good roads. “ I am known for my honest work in politics and joined the BJP seeing the good work done by PM Narendra Modi and the state government,” she said, adding at present 5 of the 6 MLAs under Koderma PCt are from BJP whose supporters are with her. ” I don’t see any reason why I should not win this seat,” stated Annapurna Devi while talking to the reporter.
Refuting the claims of Annapurna Devi, CPI(ML) candidate Raj Kumar Yadav said that if the saffron party was so confident of doing very good work why did it change its sitting MP and gave ticket to a turncoat who was with RJD. “ Look infighting in BJP over Annapurna’s candidature is known to all and as I have always stood by the people of Koderma, I don’t see Annapurna cutting much ice here,” Yadav asserted.
While talking to the reporter , Babulal Marandi said that tall promises were made by the BJPbut it has failed on all the fronts. “When I left BJP, I contested this seat as an Independent and won the seat by a handsome margin and now Congress, RJD, JMM, and JVM are contesting together and so I am sure to win this seat,” claimed Marandi.