RANCHI: Jharkhand is preparing for an exciting contest, particularly among women candidates in four key seats. The most high-profile seat among these is Gandey, where BJP’s Munia Devi is pitted against Kalpana Soren, wife of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The other contested seats include Dumri, Ramgarh, and Jharia.Gandey has garnered significant attention due to Kalpana Soren’s candidacy. The seat made headlines when Sarfaraz Ahmad resigned from the seat, apparently to make way for Kalpana Soren after Hemant Soren’ arrest on January 31 in a money laundering case linked to land scam.After his resignation, Ahmad was elected as Rajya Sabha MP. Kalpana Soren represents the Gandey Assembly seat after winning the by-election this May, defeating BJP’s Dilip Kumar Verma by 27,149 votes. Soren will be facing BJP’s Munia Devi, who is currently the chairperson of the Giridih District Council. Interestingly, Munia Devi was a housewife before 2010, when she was elected as a Zila Parishad Member and then became the president of zila parishad from Jamua East in 2010-11. In 2022, she was again elected Zila Parishad Member and became the zila parishad president.In Jharia, two daughters in-law — Purnima Neeraj Singh and Ragini Singh — of the same family will face each other. After the murder of Congress leader Neeraj Singh, his wife Purnima Neeraj Singh, also the sitting MLA from Jharia, is being fielded by the Congress, whereas, Ragini Singh, wife of Sanjeev Singh, who is currently in jail for murdering Neeraj Singh, is BJP’s candidate.In Dumri, JMM’s Baby Devi, the wife of ex-JMM minister Jagarnath Mahto, is in a direct fight with AJSU’s Yashoda Devi. Last year also, Yashoda Devi had contested from the seat on AJSU ticket when BJP and AJSU contested separately during the 2019 Assembly polls, and remained on second position against late Jagarnath Mahto of JMM.
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