SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Aug 17: Three senior leaders of Dhanbad, Brajendra Prasad Singh, Ajay Dubey and Sultan Ahmed were invited to the super 30 meeting called by All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge to discuss the Lok Sabha poll preparations in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand Congress vice-president- cum-chairman of the state party disciplinary committee Brajendra Prasad Singh said that they discussed on how to strengthen the party organization and ensure victory on all the 14 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
At the meeting, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary (organizational) KC Venugopal were also present and gave the Jharkhand leaders ‘Gurumantra’ for the electoral victory.
The Jharkhand leaders, at the meeting, said that the party organization is strong in all the 14 seats in the state and can win all the seats. But the party would follow the ‘religion of coalition’ and would contest the election along with all the partners of the ruling alliance.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress Party had got nine seats in alliance with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the RJD but only one Congress candidate Geeta Koda had won from West Singhbhum. The JMM contested four seats but its only one candidate Vijay Kumar Hansda won from the Rajmahal seat.
The BJP-AJSU alliance bagged 12 seats out of 14 in Jharkhand.
One of the leaders while requesting anonymity said that the Dhanbad Lok Sabha seat was discussed on a priority basis and the AICC president directed to work out for winning it again.
Chandrashekhar Dubey was the last Congress leader who had won from Dhanbad in 2004. He also contested in 2009 but lost. In 2014, Ajay Dubey was given a ticket and he lost again. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election despite local leaders’ protests, Congress fielded BJP Darbhanga MP Kirti Jha Azad (son of former Congress chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad) from Dhanbad and he lost his deposit.
The super 30 meeting called by Mallikarjun Kharge was also attended by Jharkhand Congress in-charge Avinas Pande, Jharkhand president Rajesh Thakur, Subodh Kant Sahay, Dr Ajay Kumar, Gaurav Ballabh (national spokesperson), Chandrashekhar Dubey, Rameshwar Oraon, Alamgir Alam, Badal Patralekh, Kalicharan Munda, Deepika Pandey, Geeta Koda and Madhu Koda.
