Lok Sabha polls: Santhal Parganas, North Chotanagpur hold key in Jharkhand
Lok Sabha polls will be held in the state in four phases on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP emerged victorious in 11 seats, while its ally AJSU secured one seat. Both the JMM and Congress have one seat each.
For the upcoming polls, while the BJP has announced candidates for 11 of the 14 seats, the INDIA bloc is yet to announce its nominees as talks continue among allies, including the JMM and Congress, over seat sharing.
In Santhal Parganas, the saffron party had won Dumka (ST) and Godda seats and lost Rajmahal (ST) to JMM in 2019.
This time, the BJP will not only try to retain the two parliamentary seats it had won in 2019 but also make all-out efforts to wrest the one it lost. The JMM and the Congress will also leave no stone unturned to retain their hold in the region.
Rajmahal, considered a JMM bastion, is one of the seats eyed by the party although seat sharing among allies has not yet been finalised.
Vijay Kumar Hansdak of the JMM had won the Rajmahal constituency in 2019, defeating Hemlal Murmu of the BJP.
This time, the BJP has fielded its former Jharkhand state president Tala Marandi from Rajmahal. Marandi, who had won the Borio assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2014, had joined the AJSU party in 2019 after being denied a BJP ticket. However, he returned to the BJP in 2022.
In Dumka, the BJP has fielded sitting MP Sunil Soren. He had defeated JMM president Shibu Soren in the 2019 polls by a margin of 47,590 votes.
Sitting MP Nishikant Dubey will seek re-election
