Ranchi
Congress’ Chaibasa (ST) MP and former Chief Minister Madhu Koda’s wife Geeta Koda on Monday joined the BJP blaming her erstwhile party for indulging in “politics of appeasement”.
In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Geeta defeated BJP’s Laxman Giluwa by over 72,000 votes, securing nearly 50 percent of the total votes polled. This when riding on the Modi wave, the BJP and its allies won 12 out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand. While Congress won one seat, the JMM won one.
“The Congress is only doing appeasement politics. It claims it wants to take everyone along, but the fact remains that they care for none and are only concerned about their family,” Geeta said, adding I will contribute in fulfilling the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India “Viksit Bharat”. State unit BJP president Babulal Marandi inducted her at a ‘simple ‘ function here.
The Kodas are Ho tribals, who have always played a dominant role in Kolhan politics. After Chief Minister Champai Soren recently inducted three-time Chaibasa MLA Deepak Birua, who also belongs to Ho tribe, in the council of ministers, it widely began to be perceived that Geeta could face issues related to her bid for the seat during the 2024 general elections. This is one of the reasons being attributed to Geeta’s switchover to the BJP.
For the BJP, it appears to be a win-win situation at least for the time being even as Geeta switching sides is big setback for Congress in particular and its ruling alliance partners JMM and RJD ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. After all, Jharkhand is one state where there seems to be almost absolute unity among the I.N.D.I.A. block members and where seat sharing would not be an issue it seems.
Chaibasa Lok Sabha constituency has been an old Congress bastion, where JMM too has a strong support base. In the new scenario after Geeta’s exit, how the Congress and the JMM would take up a united fight during the upcoming elections remains to be seen.
Geeta coming to the BJP fold also owe to the Kodas’ closeness with Babulal Marandi. Her husband Madhu Koda had been a Minister in the Marandi Government after Jharkhand came into existence. He was also a Minister in the subsequent Arjun Munda dispensation but toppled his Government to become Chief Minister with the support of Congress and JMM MLAs among others.
Madhu Koda was later arrested and convicted in a mining scam. He too had emerged victorious on the seat as an Independent in 2009. Madhu Koda was initially a trade union leader at iron ore mines, surrounded by Saranda forests, and began his political career with the BJP in late 1980s.
He soon went on to represent the Jagannathpur constituency in the Bihar Assembly in 1995 and the subsequent assembly elections held thereafter.
The BJP had even denied ticket to him in 2005 but he contested the Jagannathpur seat as an Independent and won. In 2009, he won the Chaibasa Lok Sabha seat and his wife became the Jagannathpur MLA.
Following his conviction in mining scams, he was barred from contesting elections. But these failed to make any impact on his support base. While behind the bars, Marandi, who too was at loggerheads with the BJP those days, regularly visited him to extend moral support.
