BJP’s Gain, Students’ Pain, In Jharkhand

Ranchi/Giridih: Wednesday brought fortunes to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jharkhand, as not only five legislators, former Director General of Police and retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) joined the saffron brigade, but a former health minister along with his party decided to join the ruling party.

This development—MLAs hailing from different opposition parties joining BJP just ahead of the Assembly polls—has great political significance. The ones who joined BJP from other parties include two MLAs each from Jharkhand Mukhti Morcha (JMM) and Congress party. Jai Prakash Patel, JMM’s Mandu MLA—who had openly supported BJP during the Lok Sabha polls along with Kunal Sarangi—jumped the fence.

Congress party’s former Jharkhand president and MLA Sukhdev Bhagat along with Barhi MLA Manoj Yadav also chose to become leaders of the ruling party.

According to sources, all the sitting MLAs who have joined BJP will be getting tickets to contest election from their favourite constituencies.

However, this development in Ranchi came as a curse for the school children, 220 kilometers away from the the state capital, in Giridih. Due to these political developments, Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who was supposed to do a roadshow in Giridih, had to delay his programme by almost three hours and chose to attend the party function to welcome the new members. Meanwhile, the schoolchildren kept waiting for the CM sporting BJP’s symbols, along the roadside in Giridih.

District administration’s officials, who had brought students to welcome the CM, had no option but to make them wait. If this was not enough, party cadres went ahead and made them wear BJP’s caps, scarves and handed them party flags.  The students were also not given anything to eat until the chief minister’s convoy crossed by.

Students of several schools were seen wearing BJP’s symbols during the roadshow

“Raghubar government does not do anything good for the children. That is why they have made them stand with the party symbols. State government has crossed all the limits. They have also lost the culture of this state,”  said Jharkhand Vikash Morcha leader Chunnu Kant, after the event was over.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)’s district president Sanjay Singh claimed, “Sponsored by BJP, Jan Ashirwad Yatra is a political programme and we witnessed a shocking spectacle on the roads of Giridih during the event, where students were used as a political tool. It is highly condemnable. It violates children's rights and we demand action, else party will be forced to protest.”