THE BIG FIGHT FOR LEGACY

THE STAGE IS SET FOR A HIGH-STAKES SHOWDOWN AS POLITICAL BIGWIGS AND PARIVARS VIE FOR CONTROL OF THE TRIBAL HEARTLAND

- Amitabh Srivastava

As the air turned crisp in Hata village, East Singhbhum, a crowd sitting on red plastic chairs, nibbling samosas and sipping tea, had their eyes fixed on Arjun Munda, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran and three-term chief minister, about to make the day's final speech at the inauguration meeting of the party's campaign office. One person in the hall, however, seemed focused elsewhere-his wife, Meera Munda, the BJP candidate for Potka constituency. As Munda stood up, Meera leaned in and whispered in Bangla, "Ami aschi" (I'll be going). Munda then turned to the audience: "If you permit, we'll let the candidate reach another place." With a bow, Meera exited with Menka Sardar, a former BJP MLA who lost the seat in 2019.

Potka isn't vast by any measure, and it's not that Meera couldn't have waited to hear her husband speak. But in a constituency that has only about 300,000 voters, the 43,110-vote margin by which Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)'s Sanjib Sardar defeated Menka in the previous election must be weighing heavy on her mind. Sanjib is in the fray again, and the Mundas are acutely aware of the task at hand.