VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, March 29: Jailed Bandhu Tirkey is seriously contemplating picking either of his two daughters as his political successor after he was convicted by the CBI court in a disproportionate assets case on Monday.
After three years of jail punishment, he is going to lose membership in the Jharkhand assembly and he stands disqualified to contest any election to be held in near future. According to the law, such convicts shall continue to be disqualified for a further period of six years after their release. There is no way out to get any relief from the termination of membership and the restriction to context election.
Bandhu Tirkey represented the Mandar assembly seat. It is widely believed that his elder daughter Shilpi Neha Tirkey would step in the shoes of her father.
“The court judgment has not come out of the blue. He was well prepared for an adverse situation like this. He had told us that in case he is convicted he would like his daughter to contest from Mandar. He can’t allow the seat to slip out of his family control,” said a senior Congress leader. Shilpi is not politically active.
Bandhu Tirkey had won the last assembly election as the JVM candidate. But after JVM Babulal Marandi merged the party with the BJP he joined the Congress. But technically he is treated as an independent MLA. He is the working president of the Jharkhand Congress. It will be hard for the Congress to ignore his demand given his influence among voters.
In the BJP there are several probable faces, including Gangotri Kujur, Deokumar Dhan, Arun Oraon, and Ramkumar Pahan. “It is just a matter of time when the assembly will notify the termination of his membership. Sooner or later the by-poll will be announced. But the BJP is not in a hurry to take a call on this matter. Let the Congress and the JMM decide first,” said a BJP leader.
