In September 2017, 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari died of starvation in Karimati village in Jharkhand after her family's ration card was cancelled as it wasn't linked to Aadhaar.
Karimati is located in the Jaldega block of the tribal-dominated Simdega district, which is among the least developed parts of Jharkhand. The people of Karimati will be voting on 20 December in the by-election to the Kolebira Assembly constituency.
Despite having some of India's poorest voters, Kolebira has been represented for the past three elections by a leader who became famous in Jharkhand for his wealth and influence: Jharkhand Party leader Anosh Ekka. Ekka’s palatial mansion in Thakurtoli in Simdega is in sharp contrast to the humble huts of most of his constituents. But many people in the area swear loyalty to Ekka and say his wealth is a source of pride for them.
Anosh Ekka Convicted for Murder
In June 2018, Ekka was convicted by a district court in connection with the abduction and murder of a para-teacher called Manoj Kumar and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Kumar was said to have been a critic of Ekka. As a result of the conviction, Ekka was disqualified from the Assembly and the seat has now fallen vacant.
Along with Ekka, Dhanesh Baraik of the People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) was also convicted for the murder. The Jharkhand Party leader has often been accused of having links with the outfit, which is a breakaway faction of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Earlier, Ekka had also been accused in a money-laundering case and in 2014, Enforcement Directorate had seized some of his properties in the posh parts of South Delhi and Gurgaon, estimated to be worth Rs 100 crore.
Wife Fights in Jailed Husband's Name
Ekka's clout in Kolebira is such that he won the 2009 and 2014 Assembly elections despite being in jail. In both these elections, Ekka’s campaigns were managed by his wife Menon Ekka, who has been an equal partner in his political rise. She has been a Zila Parishad member and also contested the 2014 Assembly elections from Simdega but lost to BJP's Vimla Pradhan by a narrow margin of about 3,000 votes.
She is now contesting the bypoll from her husband's seat as a Jharkhand Party candidate.
The elections are a matter of survival for the Ekka couple. They received a shot in the arm with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the largest Opposition party in the state, supporting Menon Ekka in the bypoll. The Ekkas haven't enjoyed the best of relations with the JMM. In 2014, Menon Ekka accused the then-chief minister Hemant Soren of the JMM of being behind Anosh Ekka's arrest. However, the JMM has now decided to win Menon Ekka's goodwill just in case they need her help in next year's Assembly elections in Jharkhand. Hemant Soren even came to Jaldega to campaign for Menon Ekka.
BJP and Congress Clash Ahead of Lok Sabha Polls
The Congress, however, did not agree to JMM’s proposal of fielding Menon Ekka as a united Opposition candidate. The party has fielded Naman Bixal Kongari in the by-election. Former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi's Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) is backing the Congress candidate. In the last leg of the campaign, the Congress deployed Rajya Sabha MP Dhiraj Prasad Sahu in Kolebira, mainly to convince non-tribal voters.
The Congress has accused Anosh Ekka of trying to intimidate the voters, while sitting in jail.
Also in the fray is BJP's Basant Soreng, who is counting on a split in Opposition votes between the Jharkhand Party and the Congress. The BJP has never won the seat, where Christians form a substantial part of the electorate. The party hopes that a win in Kolebira would help it counter the perception that there is a huge shift of Adivasi voters away from it across the country. BJP fared poorly in the tribal-dominated seats in the recent elections in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The results of the Kolebira bypoll will be announced on 23 December. It will set the tone for the battle for 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand in the general elections due a few months from now, as well as the Assembly elections in the state that are likely to take place towards the end of next year.
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