Jharkhand Rajya Sabha Election: The political atmosphere has completely heated up before the elections to be held on June 18 for two Rajya Sabha seats in Jharkhand. Both the ruling Indian Alliance and the opposition NDA are claiming their respective victories. Despite having a clear majority in the Assembly, the Grand Alliance is continuously trying to show the unity of its MLAs, while the NDA is trying to gain a strategic edge despite being behind in numbers. Before the elections, discussions about hotel politics, mock polls and cross voting have made the contest very interesting.
Mock poll in the presence of Chief Minister Hemant Soren
As part of the preparations for the Rajya Sabha elections, an important meeting of MLAs of the India Alliance was organized under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. During this, the MLAs were given training on the voting process and a mock poll was also conducted. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Radhakrishna Kishore said that in the mock poll, JMM candidate Baidyanath Ram got 29 votes and Congress candidate Pranab Jha got 27 votes. He claimed that no MLA’s vote was invalid. The Assembly Speaker’s vote will go to JMM, while ML MLA Arup Chatterjee could not attend the meeting, but his support is expected to go to the Congress candidate. Minister Yogendra Prasad said that the Grand Alliance is completely united and the victory of both the candidates is certain.
Slogan of ’56 not 61′ increased political stir
The discussion in political circles intensified when JMM general secretary Vinod Pandey raised the slogan of “56 not 61” on social media. Many kinds of speculations are being made regarding this statement. It is believed that the Grand Alliance is confident of getting more votes than its declared figure. After the meeting, Congress leaders launched sharp attacks on BJP. Minister Deepika Pandey Singh alleged that BJP is doing politics for corporate interests. Minister Shilpi Neha Tirkey said that BJP, which has faced allegations of horse-trading, is now forced to keep its own MLAs in hotels.
NDA also took charge
On the other hand, NDA has also made elections a question of prestige. MLAs of BJP and its allies have been accommodated in a hotel in Ranchi. BJP leaders say that this step has been taken for election training and strategic meetings. BJP leader Aditya Sahu said that politics is not just a game of numbers, but strategy is also equally important. He also accused Congress of attempts at horse-trading.
Announcement of polling and counting agents
All major parties have appointed their polling and counting agents regarding the elections. Congress K. Raju and Siri Bela Prasad have been made polling agents and MP Nasir Hussain has been made counting agent. JMM has handed over the responsibility to Vinod Pandey and Sudivya Kumar. Whereas BJP has appointed Amar Kumar Bauri as polling agent and Bhanu Pratap Shahi as counting agent. Voting will take place on June 18 from 9 am to 4 pm, while counting will begin at 5 pm. Now all eyes are on the election results, which can decide new equations in the politics of Jharkhand.
