Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate Sabita Mahato and three-time MLA Arvind Singh filed their nomination papers from Ichagarh assembly seat under Ranchi Lok Sabha constituency on Wednesday.
The seat is all set to see a four-cornered contest with outgoing BJP MLA Sadhu Charan Mahato and AJSU Party candidate Harelal Mahato too in fray when Ichagarh goes to poll on December 12 in the third phase of the assembly elections.
“I don’t have any challenge from any candidate and people of Ichagarh will bless me with historic win to send me as an MLA for the fourth time. In fact, my job has been made easier with huge anger and displeasure among voters towards the sitting BJP MLA here. Some people are talking of cast equations, and outsider and insider. I will only remind them that people of Ichagarh had rejected this petty and cheap politics long ago. They have made me victorious thrice here, and, as an independent in my first election from here in 1995,” said Singh who came to file his nomination with a convoy of over 150 cars, SUVs and motorcycles and filed his nomination as an independent candidate.
Sabita Mahato — who had lost the 2014 assembly election from this seat to BJP’s Sadhu Charan Mahato — said: “I can fulfil my late husband’s (Sudhir Mahato) dream only if the people of Ichagarh send me to state assembly as an MLA. Displacement and pending compensation is the biggest problem here and nothing has been done after my late husband fought and got displaced people here some of their dues. My priority will be to ensure their compensation, jobs, pension and salary. Safety, security and respect of women is another crucial issue here. Then we found there was no doctor still in the 10-bed hospital in Kukdu and 50-bed hospital in Raghunathpur in Ichagarh.” Senior JMM leader and former deputy CM Sudhir Mahato had won the seat in 2005 by defeating Singh.
BJP’s Sadhu Charan Mahato is also expected to put up a mega show of strength during his nomination on Thursday, while AJSU nominee Harelal Mahato has emerged already as the dark horse with his social work and helping nature.
