Ranchi: Preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections are in full swing in Jharkhand. Political parties are putting their all to come up with a winning list of candidates for the 14 seats in the state.
The Bharatiya Janata Party, which won the highest number of seats,12, in the last elections, is looking for some fresh faces to ward off anti-incumbency blues. Reportedly, the party is set to go for a change in the Ranchi parliamentary constituency.
According to sources, the BJP is likely to give the ticket to the current Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Amitabh Chowdhary for the Ranchi constituency. It is considered an almost certainty that incumbent MP Ram Tahal Chaudhary will lose out on the ticket after he protested on the decision earlier.
Who is Amitabh Chaudhary?
Amitabh Chaudhary, an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, is an IPS of 1985 batch. He has been the SSP of Ranchi between 1997 and 1999. Chaudhary enjoys huge support of people in Ranchi due to his work in the area, decreasing crime rate. A cricket enthusiast, Chaudhary is a long time associate of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA). Amitabh Chaudhary is credited for the creation of international cricket stadium in Ranchi and organizing international matches there. In 2013, Chaudhary resigned from government services. He was serving at the rank of ADG.
After leaving the job, Amitabh Chaudhary joined Babu Lal Marandi’s party JVM and contest the 2014 election. With about 67 thousand votes, he stood at fourth place. Following this, before the Jharkhand assembly elections in 2014, he shook hands with the saffron party. However, since then, he has been actively involved in cricket more than politics and is known for his roles BCCI and the Indian Premier League.
Amitabh Chaudhary, after joining the BCCI as its secretary got embroiled into controversies. His differences with Vinod Rai, the head of the Committee of Cricket Administrators appointed by the Supreme Court, are well known. In 2017, he hit news headlines for spending crores on his foreign travels.
Ram Tahal Chaudhary threatened the BJP
It is noteworthy that the news of BJP MP Ram Tahal Chaudhary losing ticket from Ranchi, triggered him and his supporters against the party. Tahal went on to surround the party office, protesting over the issue. Chaudhary has also announced that in case he doesn’t get a ticket from the party, he will contest as an independent candidate.
It is being reported that BJP pressed Ramtahal Chaudhary to publicly say that he is unwilling to contest the next Lok Sabha elections. On this, Ramathal Chaudhary made the party clear that no other BJP leader could ever win in Ranchi. If he is not given the ticket, the BJP will have to bear the consequences of this on the nearby seats as well.
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