Vikas Jaiswal, Barharwa: Rajmahal parliamentary constituency has been reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) since the beginning. Here more than 10 candidates contest elections in every election. If we talk about the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, at that time apart from BJP, Congress and JMM, a total of 11 candidates including independents were in the fray. Som Marandi was the BJP candidate and Congress candidate Thomas Hansda was in the fray. Thomas Hansda was the father of current MP Vijay Hansda. In that election, BJP candidate Som Marandi got 1,98,889 votes and Congress candidate Thomas Hansda got 1,98,880 votes.
Thus, in Rajmahal Lok Sabha, Som Marandi had won the lotus for the first time by winning by nine (09) votes in the 1998 elections. In 1998, total voting was 62.6%. After that, Congress won in 1999 and JMM won in 2004. After that, in 2009, Devidhan Besra of BJP won the elections, he got a total of 1,68,357 votes and in second place, Hemlal Murmu, contesting from JMM ticket, got 1,59,374 votes. Hemlal Murmu left JMM and joined BJP in the year 2014 and tried his luck with BJP but he had to face defeat. After that, he had to face defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections also.
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In the year 2023, Hemlal Murmu left BJP and again joined JMM and is currently doing active politics from JMM. JMM’s Vijay Hansda has been MP for the last two terms. If he gets the ticket from JMM, he will be in the electoral fray to score a hat-trick. In contrast to him, Tala Marandi from BJP is in the electoral fray. Apart from being the former state president of BJP, Tala Marandi has been MLA from Borio Assembly in 2005 and 2014. After Tala Marandi’s name was announced as the BJP candidate, he is continuously running a public relations campaign.
Which candidate got how many votes in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections?
- Som Marandi – BJP – 1,98,889
- Thomas Hansda – Congress – 1,98,880
- Simon Marandi – JMM – 1,50,140
- Jyotin Soren – CPI(M) – 22,359
- Ramsheel Murmu – Independent – 5,748
- Manju Snehlatha Hembrom – BJC – 3,094
- Mahesh Malto – Independent – 2,648
- Chandrashekhar Azad – Independent – 1,123
- Betka Marandi – Independent – 723
- Bajiram Marandi – Independent – 486
- Sanjay Kumar Soren – Independent – 463