After its stunning success in West Bengal, the Trinamul Congress has set its eyes westward with plans afoot for a foray into Jharkhand with the upcoming Jamshedpur LS bypoll. Party boss and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee seems keen on adding the Tatas’ hometown in her green kitty.
After first getting JMM-nominated Rajya Sabha member Kanwar Deep Singh into its fold amid bitterness spilling onto the streets of Ranchi earlier this year, the Trinamul Congress has fielded Suman Mahto, a former JMM MP, who is the widow of Jamshedpur’s slain JMM MP Sunil Mahto. Ms Mahto, who led the JMM’s state women’s wing till recently, joined Ms Banerjee’s party days before filing her nomination papers for the July 1 bypoll after the JMM denied her a ticket.
If it was an unmistakable woman power with Ms Banerjee’s leadership behind her conquest in West Bengal, it looks more so in the Jamshedpur bypoll. Ms Mahto is the lone woman candidate among the 27 contesting the bypoll. She also flaunts it with a noticeable change in the colour and designs of saree to appear, as some of her supporters claim, as the “Didi in the making in Jharkhand”. She may well justify this premature eulogy if she wins and thereby helps the original Didi’s political muscles enfold the Tatas’ hometown. Ms Mahto, who had earlier won as MP largely on sympathy votes and the JMM’s organisational might after her husband’s murder, was defeated by the BJP’s Arjun Munda in 2009. With Mr Munda becoming the chief minister, the seat fell vacant and necessitated the bypoll. Her campaign is being strategically managed by RS member and industrialist Kanwar Deep Singh with a team of “young experts”, said sources.