Dumri Bypoll: Ranchi, August 14: The Dumri byelection, scheduled for September 5, is anticipating a battle between two widows, who anticipate that voters will make a political decision out of love and affection for their deceased spouses.
The AJSU party has chosen Yashoda Devi, widow of Jharkhand movement activist and former JD (U) leader late Damodar Mahto, to reverse the tide in its favour, while the ruling JMM has chosen Baby Mahto, widow of late Education Minister Jagarnath Mahto.
Damodar Mahto ran as a candidate for the JD (U) in 2009 and perished prior to 2019 due to kidney failure.
Yashoda, a candidate for the AJSU in the 2019 assembly elections, was defeated by Jagarnath Mahto by a margin of over 34,000 votes.
Dumri Bypoll: JMM and AJSU Rely on Sympathy Votes in Jharkhand
The Dumri seat is vacant due to the demise of Education Minister Jagarnath Mahto on April 6 from complications following a Corona operation.
Deosharan Bhagat, spokesman for the AJSU, states, “If Baby Mahto expects to ride on the sympathy votes following the demise of Jagarnath Mahto, Yashoda will also make a sympathy appeal in order to fulfil her husband’s wishes. He was an activist for the distinct Jharkhand movement and had a vision for Dumri.”
Yashoda, whose son has cancer, stated, “I have lost my husband, but not his dreams.”
“Moreover, the actuality on the ground is that the NDA vote share exceeded the JMM vote share in the last two elections. “In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, AJSU Party candidate Chandra Prakash Chaudhary, who was running in coalition with the BJP, received approximately 1.8 lakh votes in the Dumri assembly constituency, while Jagarnath Mahto, who also ran in the Lok Sabha elections, received approximately 70,000 votes,” Bhagat noted.
“However, both the AJSU and the BJP ran separately in the 2019 assembly elections, paving the way for the JMM’s victory. In the 2019 assembly elections, the combined vote share of the AJSU and the BJP was 72,853, compared to 71,128 for the JMM. Therefore, the math favours the NDA nominee’, Bhagat stated.
The AJSU’s morale has been boosted by its victory in the Ramgarh by-election, in which it and the BJP put on a joint display.
This election, according to Bhagat, will be a referendum on the Hemant Soren administration’s broken promises regarding employment, development, and pervasive corruption.
On the other hand, the ruling JMM, whose reputation is at stake, is also counting on sympathy ballots for Baby Devi, whose husband Jagarnath has won four consecutive elections in Dumri. Last month, Baby Devi was sworn in as a minister.
Supriyo Bhattacharya, spokesman for the JMM, asserts, “we will win elections on the ‘nam’ and ‘kaam’ of Jagarnath Babu.”
“In addition, the JMM nominee will receive the support of the other INDIA coalition parties, including the CPI and the JD (U), which fought separately in the last election,” he said.
In 2019, JD (U) nominee Lalchand Mahto received more than 5,000 ballots, while CPI nominee Ganesh Mahto received 2,891 votes.
“Moreover, 2 plus 2 does not always equal 4 in electoral contests,” he argued.
Crucial conflict preceding the 2024 Congressional elections
If the result of the by-election in Dumri goes in favour of the NDA, then the atmosphere for the parliamentary elections in 2024 will undoubtedly favour the NDA. “The outcome of the election will not affect the health of the JMM-led government, but it will provide a response to its misdeeds and failure to fulfil any of its electoral pledges,” said Deosharan Bhagat.
Alternatively, psychological pressure on the NDA (BJP) in Jharkhand will naturally increase if the result favours the JMM.
Social proportions
The Mahto caste has been dominant in this region’s elections for the past ten years, if we examine the social composition of the electorate. In Dumri, strong vote banks exist among the Mahto, Vaishya, Muslim (AIMIM candidate Abdul Mobin Rizvi received over 24,000 ballots in 2019), and tribal communities, regardless of the political party. Chandraprakash Chaudhary, MP for the AJSU in Giridih, is of the Mahto caste only.
