SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 4: The Marxist Co-ordination Committee (MCC), a constituent unit of INDI Alliance, has put up its candidate for Godda Lok Sabha seat after Dhanbad.
MCC Central Committee president and former MLA Anand Mahto on Saturday announced the name of Uday Shankar Khabrey as party candidate from Godda Lok Sabha seat. The party’s nominee Jagdish Mahto has already filed a nomination from the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat.
Dhanbad, Godda allotted to Congress
Under the INDI Alliance seat-sharing arrangement, both Dhanbad and Godda seats have been given to the Cong Party. Congress nominees Anupama Singh, wife of Bermo MLA Anup Singh and MLA Pradip Yadav have filed nominations from the Dhanbad and Godda seats respectively.
However, former MLA and senior leader of MCC Arup Chatterjee claimed that his party is still a partner of the INDI Alliance. “Barring Dhanbad and Godda seats, our party has extended support to the INDI alliance candidates in Hazaribagh, Giridih and Koderma.
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MCC Central Committee
MCC Central Committee president Anand Mahto and secretary Chandradev Mahto on Friday in this regard shot off a letter of support to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge, JMM Supremo Shibu Soren and CPIML national general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya.
The coal belt is the MCC stronghold
The coal belt is considered a stronghold of the MCC, a regional outfit. Its founder and famous Marxist thinker former MP A K Roy won the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat thrice in 1977, 1980 and 1989 and three times Sindri assembly seat. In 1977 he was joint candidate of the then Janata Party.
MCC won the Sindri seat 4 times
Besides it, MCC senior leader Anand Mahto also won Sindri assembly seats four times- 1977, 1980, 1990 and 1995. In 1977 he won as an independent candidate against the party nominee but later joined the MCC.
Nirsa assembly constituency is also considered the fort of MCC where veteran leader Gurudas Chatterjee won three times in a row- 1990, 1995 and 2000. He had been gunned down during his 3rd tenure. Later, his son Arup Chatterjee won the seat thrice- 2000, 2009 and 2014.