india

Updated: May 26, 2019 09:21 IST

Alliance with BJP “hugely” benefited the Sudesh Mahto-led Ajsu Party which is set to make its debut in parliamentary politics by winning the Girdih Lok Sabha seat.

The BJP and the AJSU Party fought the elections in alliance for the first time.

The AJSU Party won the lone Giridih seat with its candidate and Jharkhand Water Resources Minister Chandraprakash Choudhary beating JMMs Jagarnath Mahato by 2,48,347 votes. Earlier, party chief and former deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahto tested the poll waters in 2014 from Ranchi Lok Sabha seat, but finished third.

It was not easy as the BJP to sacrifice the sitting seat to its ally. As a result of this, the BJP also faced belligerence from Ravindra Pandey, the MP who represented the Giridih seat for five terms.

The AJSU Party never entered into pre poll pact with the BJP for Lok Sabha election before even as it has been in the NDA folder since 2000. The relation with BJP got strained after the 2018 by-polls for Gomia assembly seat, which both the BJP and AJSU was locked in friendly contest and the latter lost to the JMM.

The victory from Giridih Lok Sabha seat is also significant for the AJSU Party on the backdrop of its successive failures in three assembly by-polls. The party first lost the Lohardaga assembly seat to Congress in 2015 and then Silli and Gomia to the JMM in 2018, reducing its strength to four in Jharkhand assembly from five.

People started questioning the AJSU leadership and its future, as party chief Sudesh contested the Silli seat in 2018 by-election and lost. Sudesh was defeated in 2014 state elections by the JMM as well.

With Choudhary’s victory from Giridih, the Ramgarh assembly seat has been left vacant. Speculations are rife that Sudesh might shift to Ramgarh.

While the victory arrested the losing trend, the regional party is poised to make a turnaround in the coal belt and try to draw a larger political spectrum.