Cong to try young faces as BJP banks on old guard

HAZARIBAG: Congress has given tickets to both young and experienced candidates in Hazaribag district this time as anticipated although the official list is yet to be announced. Its rival BJP, however, has decided to repose faith in the old guard, especially the tried and tested ones.
Following instructions issued by the high command, Jharkhand Pradesh Youth Congress president Jai Shankar Pathak will be contesting from Barkatha constituency in the district.
Similarly, Sahzada Anwar, another young candidate and former president of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Hazaribag unit, has been nominated by the party to take on Chandra Prakash Choudhury, the All Jharkhand Students' Union sitting MLA from Ramgarh despite having joined Congress only a few months ago.
At Barkagaon, the party is all set to give the ticket to former Youth Congress leader Gopal Sahu for the second consecutive term. In 2005, he gave Loknath Mahato, the sitting BJP MLA for three consecutive terms, a run for his money and came a close second.
Sitting party MLAs, Sourav Narayan Singh and Manoj Kumar Yadav, have been renominated this time yet again. This time, Congress has decided to contest Mandu, the seat it gave to its ally JMM last time. It will be fielding Kumar Mahesh Singh, party veteran and powerful Intuc leader in the Ramgarh coal belt.
Similarly, at the BJP camp, the process of selecting candidates has begun when former chief minister and the BJP's election-in-charge in the state, Arjun Munda, visited Hazaribag last weekend to discuss the choice of candidates. At that meeting, party workers prefferred to renominate the old guard to contest the polls.
So, BJP has again decided to nominate old guards like former minister Devidayal Kushwaha, Chittaranjan Yadav from Barkatha and Loknath Mahato from Barkagaon. The party was also contemplating giving a ticket to Uma Shankar Akela, who recently joined BJP and gave a tough fight to Congress veteran Manoj Kumar Yadav, the sitting MLA for the last three terms.