Jharkhand Assembly Election: Four Seats To Witness Woman Vs Woman Fight

Jharkhand is gearing up for a closely-watched contest, particularly among women candidates in four key constituencies.

Leading the list is Gandey, where the BJP's Munia Devi faces off against Kalpana Soren, wife of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Other competitive seats include Dumri, Ramgarh, and Jharia, reported The New Indian Express.

Photo Credit: PTI

The Gandey seat has drawn significant interest with Kalpana Soren's entry. The constituency made headlines when Sarfaraz Ahmad resigned, reportedly to pave the way for Kalpana Soren following Hemant Soren's arrest on January 31 in a money laundering case tied to a land scam.

After stepping down, Ahmad was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP. Kalpana Soren won the Gandey Assembly by-election this May, defeating the BJP's Dilip Kumar Verma by a margin of 27,149 votes.

Soren now faces BJP's Munia Devi, currently chairperson of the Giridih District Council. Interestingly, Munia Devi was a housewife until 2010 when she was elected as a Zila Parishad Member and later became president of the zila parishad in 2010-11 from Jamua East. She was re-elected as Zila Parishad Member and resumed the zila parishad presidency in 2022.

In Jharia, two daughters-in-law from the same family, Purnima Neeraj Singh and Ragini Singh, will stand against each other. Following the murder of Congress leader Neeraj Singh, his wife, Purnima Neeraj Singh, the current MLA for Jharia, has been fielded by the Congress. Ragini Singh, wife of Sanjeev Singh, who is in jail for Neeraj Singh's murder, is the BJP candidate.

In Dumri, the JMM's Baby Devi, wife of former JMM minister Jagarnath Mahto, will compete directly with AJSU's Yashoda Devi. Last year, Yashoda Devi also contested this seat under the AJSU banner when the BJP and AJSU ran separately in the 2019 Assembly elections, finishing second to the late Jagarnath Mahto of the JMM.