Jharkhand Assembly Polls: A battle of prestige for family of ex-CM Raghubar Das
Jamshedpur East has been a BJP's stronghold since Bihar days and barring 2019, the party has never lost any election here since 1990 when it was part of Bihar. Former Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das won this seat five times, once in Bihar and four times since Jharkhand became a state, before losing it to Saryu Roy in 2019.
Das is currently the governor of Odisha and BJP has fielded his daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahu from his home turf. The election will decide whether Das's family still has a sway over the seat which has been his family seat for the last three decades.
Congress has fielded former Jamshedpur MP Ajoy Kumar from the seat. There is also a rebellion within the BJP as party leader Shiv Shankar Singh has filed nomination as an Independent. Singh was hoping to get the ticket but with the party preferring Sahu over him, he has become a challenger. «People are regretting for defeating Ragubhar Das from this seat in the last election. This is a strong BJP seat and Purnima Sahu is going to win this seat easily,» Pradeep Gupta, a trader in Meharda area tells ET. The constituency has a sizable business community vote and BJP banks on their support for victory.
Congress' Ajoy Kumar is largely banking on his image when he was the senior SP of Jamshedpur in the 1990s. Kumar has won one Lok Sabha bypoll from this seat.
Roop Lal Birua, a contract worker in Laxmi Nagar Telco region says he will vote for Congress as Kumar should get a chance to serve the people. «We have elected Das for the past several elections. This
