THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Nov 24: Arithmetic never works in politics. It’s chemistry that matters. Palamu’s Panki assembly constituency saw a chemistry where the BJP retained its almost losing seat.
The Muslims paved the way to the victory of BJP’s Panki candidate Kushwaha Shashibhushan Mehta.
It may sound politically incredible but it has happened. The Muslims didn’t vote for the BJP. It’s very true. And the BJP won this seat simply because of the Muslims unwittingly throwing their vote power.
How Muslim votes propelled BJP’s victory?
They voted for a Muslim candidate Mumtaz Ahmad Khan of the Azad Samaj Party who polled little over 22, 000 votes and that helped the BJP’s Kushwaha Shashibhushan Mehta to win this seat by little over 9,000 votes.
Mehta had a direct fight with the independent candidate Devender Kumar Singh alias Bittu Singh, already expelled from the Congress.
There was a time when Bittu Singh had a lead of 11,000 votes over Mehta and political pundits were sanguine of this independent Singh to win. However, Bittu’s electoral fortune crashed like the stock exchange.
It was Khan who became a major factor in the defeat of Bittu Singh by helping an electoral proxy and BJP’s Mehta to retain his seat for the second consecutive term.
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Had Khan not contested and the Muslim votes not squandered Bittu Singh would have a different story by now.
An elated Kushwaha Shashibhushan Mehta told this correspondent “I won the election. It’s a people’s grace.”
Congress falters with poor candidate selection
The Congress here in the Panki assembly constituency had fielded Laal Suraj who was just a year ago seen as a fierce face of Hindutva and on his getting ticket for the seat from the Congress, the Muslims had slammed the door to him.
Laal Suraj proved a very poor pick of the Congress. It is not yet known how the Congress decided to field him here in Panki.
The independent Bittu was popular with the Muslims but for Khan, Muslim votes got split and that helped Mehta to win.
Mehta is seen as a neo Avatar of the Hindutva forces.
Mehta is in his second innings. He is now a more astute politician. He is expected to play his card.
Panki assembly constituency saw stardom in Ravi Kishan campaigning for Mehta while Khesari Lal Yadav for an independent Binod Kumar. The ‘latka jhatka’ (gyrating) did nothing as Binod Kumar just couldn’t get more votes to fill even a 7,000-capacity auditorium hall. He polled less than his own crowd that used to hear him and which used to be around 7,000 or so.
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