Will Cases Against BJP’s Dulu Mahato Affect His Victory In Dhanbad? (image-facebook/Dulu Mahato Chandankiyar Fan)

Dulu Mahato is fielded as the BJP candidate from the Dhanbad constituency. He has been representing the constituency since the year 2009. Dhanbad with an electorate of 22.54 lakh including 78 third-gender voters will go to polls on May 25. 

Mahato, an MLA was chosen by the saffron party while dropping the sitting MP Pashupati Nath Singh who has been representing the seat since 2009. Meanwhile the selection of Dulu as the BJP candidate has raised questions among BJP ranks and locals. 

Dulu has been accused of several cases including land grab, extortion and coal smuggling. However, BJP Jharkhand President Babulal Marandi defending Dulu said that it is true that the party’s Dhanbad Lok Sabha nominee Dulu Mahato is facing a number of cases but he is “not a criminal”, and the party stands by him. The assertion of Marandi came a day after an FIR was registered against Mahato under various IPC sections including 387(extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) based on a complaint by Krishna Agarwal, Dhanbad unit president of the Marwari Sammelan.

With Dulu’s candidateship, the political aspirations of sitting MP Pashupati Nath Singh, who represented the Dhanbad in Parliament in 2009, 2014 and 2019 and thrice in the state assembly prior to that could end. Earlier, Rita Verma had represented Dhanbad since 1991 before being defeated by Congress leader Chandrashekhar Dubey in 2004. 

Dhanbad is one of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Jharkhand state. It comprises of the following six Vidhan Sabha.