Lok Sabha Elections 2019:Jharkhand RJD chief Annapurna Devi joins BJP

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief in Jharkhand and former minister Annapurna Devi on Monday joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi, giving rise to speculation that she might be the saffron party’s candidate from the Koderma Lok Sabha constituency, taking on former chief minister Babulal Marandi, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) candidate.

Former legislator from Chatra, Janardhan Paswan, also joined the saffron party.

The development sent a shock wave through the RJD camp, which removed Annapurna Devi and Janardhan Paswan from party posts on Monday, hours before her joining the BJP. Devi was ousted for six years and appointed Gautam Sagar Rana as its state president.

A former minister in the United Progressive Alliance government and a four-term MLA from Koderma, Annapurna Devi joined the BJP in the presence of party’s central leader Bhupendra Yadav, Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das, BJP’s Jharkhand unit president Laxman Gilua, and others. Later in the day, she also met the BJP’s national president Amit Shah.

Earlier, the BJP central election committee on March 22 night, after deliberations on candidate selection, put the Koderma seat candidate naming on hold, along with that of Ranchi and Chatra.

Raghubar Das said, “Annapurna Devi is a popular leader of Jharkhand. She has been championing the people’s cause in politics. The country again needs a strong prime minister. Many leaders from different parties are joining the BJP after being influenced by the public policies of the Modi government.”

“Devi’s joining in the BJP just before the polls is an indicator that the party would most likely field her from the Koderma Lok Sabha seat, dropping its sitting MP Ravindra Rai,” said a senior BJP leader in Ranchi.

Incidentally, the RJD, which is part of the opposition Grand Alliance in Jharkhand, comprising the Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and JVM(P), had been demanding the Koderma, Palamu, and Chatra seats, but was given only Palamu. Koderma was given to JVM(P).

Meanwhile, politics in Koderma heated up after Devi’s entry into the saffron brigade. The parliamentary constituency is heading for a triangular contest between the BJP, the Grand Alliance, and the CPI(ML).

Devi had won assembly elections from Koderma in 1998, 2000, 2005, and 2009. Her husband, late Ramesh Yadav, had represented the Koderma assembly seat from 1990 to 1998. She revived the RJD in Jharkhand after it was routed in the 2014 assembly elections.