Denied ticket by BJP Saryu Rai announces his candidature against Raghubar Das

Jamshedpur/Ranchi: Senior BJP leader and Food and Civil Supplies Minister Saryu Rai have perhaps dropped the biggest bomb on his own party after he declared his candidature against Chief Minister Raghubar Das from Jamshedpur East of the Jharkhand Assembly.

Mr Rai has been denied ticket so far by the BJP in the fourth list of the candidates declared so far after which today he announced that apart from Jamshedpur East he will be also contesting from Jamshedpur West the seat he currently holds as an Independent candidate.

Addressing the press he said that tomorrow he will be filing his nominations from both the seats and added that he will be devoting his time to Jamshedpur East while for Jamshedpur West the work will be handled by the party workers.

Chief Minister Raghubar Das is also scheduled to file his nominations on Monday from Jamshedpur West Seat. He said that the party has taken a decision over which there was no need to be sad or make merry and now time has come to take a decision and draw a big line. “An environment of fear and terror has been created in Jamshedpur East and there was a need to change that,” he said.

Mr Rai said that now he can openly fight so that people of ‘86 Bastis’ can get their ownership rights and will raise his voice against the frequent strike in Telco.

He said that Telco has got units in other parts of the country but in Jamshedpur only closure happens and in the month the plant remains closed for 20-25 days. He said that the workers of Jamshedpur West have assured him that he need not worry about the area whereas people from Jamshedpur East have promised to give him ‘Note’ (money) and Vote also.

The minister said that there was an environment of fear and terror in Jamshedpur which he had opposed while in power. Rai said that there is a decorum attached in power and people start raising questions if one fails to raise their voice.

He said that he had written letters to the state government against this terror and also helped many to get relief and said that the administration and government should work without fear. He said that now he will be also actively participating in the movement of the workers which he could earlier not as he was in the government.

Saryu Rai was elected from the Jamshedpur West Seat on two occasions including 2005 and 2014, however, he had lost to Banna Gupta of Congress in 2009 polls.