Yashwant Sinha turns Cong BJP fight for Hazaribag prestige issue

HAZARIBAG: A multi-cornered contest is on the cards for the prestigious Hazaribag Assembly constituency that goes to the polls during the third phase on December 8. But the real fight will be between sitting Congress MLA Sourabh Narayan Singh, grandson of the late Raja Bahadur K N Singh of the Ramgarh royal family, and three-time BJP MLA, Devidayal Kushwaha.
While Singh, an MBA from Australia, was elected from this constituency in his maiden appearance in 2005 by defeating Braj Kishore Jaiswal, an Independent, by nearly 4,000 votes, Kushwaha came third because the supporters of Yashwant Sinha, who lost the 2004 Lok Sabha election to CPI's B P Mehta, worked against him Kushwaha as his group was said to be responsible for Sinha's defeat.
But just before the LS polls this year, both Sinha and Kushwaha decided to bury the hatchet. As a result, the former won the Hazaribag LS seat and, in return, promised to help the 75-year-old Kushwaha wrest the Hazaribag Assembly seat. So, he hit the campaign trail with his entire family, including wife Nilima and son Jayant in tow.
Whereas BJP is harping on price rise and the sitting MLA's failure to provide roads, drains, healthcare, power and generate employment opportunities. It also levelled charges of harassment against the Congress candidate.
Sourav Narayan Singh, on the other, released a list of development work he has done for the constituency. He listed his achievements, including providing a fund of Rs 69 crore to construct Ring Road, developing Hazaribag as an educational hub by starting law and engineering colleges besides starting MBA and BBA management courses at the Vinoba Bhave University in Hazaribag.
Regarding drinking water, Singh provided funds for sinking 400 tube wells besides bringing several housing schemes and also build a hospital with modern amenities. Also, he blamed the BJP-ruled Hazaribag Municipality for not cleaning roads and drains and not taking up development projects in spite of the urban development ministry having sanctioned a handsome amount of money for it.
So far, Shatrughan Sinha and Smriti Irani have scorched the campaign trail for BJP apart from Yashwant Sinha. Whereas Digvijay Singh and Union minister Anand Sharma did the honours for Congress.
Other candidates in the fray include former Hazaribag Municipality vice-chairman Ghulam Moinuddin of RJD, JMM"s Sanjay Kumar Gupta and NCP's Ainul Haque.
While Muslims and backwards constitute more than 55% of the 2,73,212 voters, Harijans, Adivasis and other upper castes make up the rest. Therefore, one who gets the maximum support of Muslims and backwards will be able to swing the seat his way.