BJP Gives Ticket To Ex-Congress MP Geeta Koda From Jharkhand (Facebook image@ Geeta Kora)
For the upcoming Lok Sabha election, BJP has decided to field new faces. The party gave ticket to Geeta Koda from Singhbhum constituency of Jharkhand. It was on February 26th 2024, that Koda has joined the BJP. Koda, wife of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, walked out of Congress party as she was unhappy with the grant old party’s newly forged alliance in the state.
Geeta Koda joined Congress in 2018 in the presence of top leaders of the party, including Rahul Gandhi. She was two-time MLA from Jagannathpur Assembly Constituencies. Before joining Congress, she was member of Jai Bharat Samanta Party, which was founded by her husband in 2009. She contested against BJP’s Sonaram Birua. In 2014, Geeta Koda retained her seat by tiding over the “Modi wave”. She won the seat by competing against BJP’S Mangal Singh Soren.
Geeta Koda was the only MLA from the Jai Bharat Samanta Party, as she won Jaganathpur constituency in Jharkhand Assembly Election in 2009. In 2018, the party merged with Congress.
Geetha Koda belongs to an ethnic HO (Austroasiatic Munda ethnic group. They call themselves HO, which means ‘human’ in their language), a scheduled tribe). In 2017, she was appointed as the member of the Commonwealth Women’s Parliamentarians Steering Committee (India Region) by former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Sumitra Mahajan. She became the first woman from Jharkhand to represent the Commonwealth Women’s Parliamentarians.
Koda was awarded with Champions of Change Award in 2019, recognizing her work in Social Welfare (Aspirational Districts). The award was conferred to Koda by former President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, at Vigyan Bhavan on January 2020.
