SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 20: If the mood of the Kayastha community members is any para metre of polling indication, it looks like over 1.67 lakh Chitrans ( Kayasth) voters of the Dhanbad Lok Sabha constituency are slipping from the BJP kitty.
A meeting of Dhanbad-Bokaro Chitrans members was held at ‘Wedding Bell’ in which they unanimously resolved to vote for a clean-face candidate for the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat.
Kayasthas are traditional BJP voters
Kayasth caste members have been considered traditional voters of the BJP since the 1990s. They wholeheartedly voted for Prof Rita Verma ( four times MP 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999), PN Singh on the Dhanbad Sadar assembly seat ( 1995, 2000, 2005) and in Lok Sabha poll in 2009, 2014 and 2019.
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After PN Singh, Kayashtha voters supported Raj Sinha on the Dhanbad Sadar assembly seat in the 2014 and 2019 elections.
But on Sunday, BJP MLA Raj Sinha, at a special meeting appealed to vote for a clean-face candidate. He, however, did not mention any name. Over 800 members of the Dhanbad and Bokaro districts that fall in the Dhanbad Lok Sabha constituency participated in it.
Descendants of Lord Chitragupta
“We are descendants of Lord Chitragupta and considered intellectual. So, we must exercise franchise with family and vote a clean face candidate,” he said.
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Senior journalist of Jharkhand Dipak Ambastha (at present editor of a vernacular daily) was guest of honour at the meeting and he also stressed voting for a clean candidate, not party.
“There are 1.67 lakh Kayastha voters in Dhanbad Lok Sabha. It will decide the fate of any candidate. Kayastha society always thinks of nationalism first. We have voting rights from the constitution. So in the interest of nationalism, we must vote for the candidate who has a clean face in public,” he said.
Dipak Ambastha said Kayasthas have always fought against injustice in society. It is high time to vote based on candidate’s quality, not party, he said.
Sangat Pangat
Jharkhand Co-ordinator of Sangat Pangat (a body of Chitrans) Amitesh Sahay said that the people of Dhanbad are peace lovers and always voted for a clean face MP. “This time too we should not do wrong in selecting candidates who create trouble in future. So, select s clean face,” said Sahay.
AK Sahay, Akhil Bhartiya Kayasth Sabha vice-president Jitendra Kumar Sinha also addressed the meeting.
A member said we did not mention the name of any candidate for support but it is understood that BJP candidate Dhulu Mahto is facing 19 criminal cases while there is no case against Jagdish Rawani of MCC and Anupama Singh of the Congress.
However, a retired professor of BBMKU who rejected the meeting said that JMM leader Amitesh Sahay and JMM founder AK Sahay hijacked the parley and turned against the BJP candidate.
