Dhanbad fight hots up, heavyweights in fray

With six prominent players in the fray, the contest for the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat will depend entirely on the voters' mood and important local issues at stake.

The BJP has fielded sitting MP PN Singh for the second time from this constituency.

The fight has become all the more interesting with former minister in the Hemant Soren government Chandrasekhar Dubey joining the fray on a Trinamool ticket after being denied candidature by the Congress.

Ajay Dubey is the Congress candidate.

The three others are Bokaro MLA Samaresh Singh, who is the JVM(P) nominee, former Sindri MLA Anand Mahto, who is contesting on a Marxist Coordination Committee ticket and Ramadhir Singh, the BSP candidate.

With so many prominent leaders, the going may get tough for Singh this time.

Popularly known as 'Bhaaiji', Singh prefers to mingle with the people as a common man.

The parliamentarian is at present engaged in reviving old contacts and re-energising party workers and supporters for retaining the seat.

Born in Patna, Singh is married to Mira Singh, a housewife.

The soft-spoken BJP leader had a lean period in the eighties and early nineties.

Singh had a tough time in reaching the top by surpassing veteran leaders.

His luck did not favour him when he contested from the Jharia assembly seat and lost the first two times.

Singh became an MLA from Dhanbad in 1995 and represented the seat thrice after that before becoming the
Dhanbad MP.

Singh became the Lok Sabha MP from Dhanbad in 2009.

He also served the party as the state BJP president before becoming an MP.

He was also the ward councillor of Dhanbad municipality for three terms and was active as a student leader during his college days at RSP College, Jharia.

Singh represented the Dhanbad assembly segment consecutively from 1995 to 2000 first in Bihar assembly of united Bihar and then in Jharkhand.

He was also appointed the deputy leader of the BJP in Bihar assembly.

He was awarded the best legislator of Jharkhand in 2007.

Singh was appointed a minister when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000.

He was the industries minister first in the Babulal Marandi cabinet and held the HRD portfolio later.

Being the HRD minister, he was instrumental for demanding the IIT tag for ISM.

The institute is likely to get the IIT status soon.

(With inputs from Gautam Mazumdar)