PLFI likes Anosh Ekka, threatens Dayamani Barla

Khunti, April 14

Instead of corruption, the Aam Aadmi Party in Jharkhand has found itself tackling a new enemy while attempting to mount an electoral challenge in the Khunti Lok Sabha constituency: the most dangerous left wing extremist organisation in the state.

AAP's Khunti candidate Dayamani Barla has registered two FIRs and written to the Election Commission after alleged cadres of the People's Liberation Front of India threatened and attacked her supporters. Barla's complaint alleges that the PLFI men asked her cadre to campaign for former state minister Anosh Ekka instead.

The PLFI, which has its origins in Khunti district's Torpa block, is now the most dangerous LWE organisation in the state in terms of incidents: they account for around 36 per cent of them. In comparison, the CPI-Maoist causes only about 34 per cent. With presence mostly in Khunti, Gumla and Simdega districts, the PLFI is considered the major reason why 120 of 150 LWE-related deaths in Jharkhand in 2013 - both national highs - were of civilians.

Barla said that the two attacks were on April 6 and 9 respectively. "At about 4 PM on April 9, six of my supporters and a driver were campaigning at Biguadag village within Karra block. Six armed people reached there in two motorcycles and beat the driver with the butt of a rifle. Meanwhile, everyone's mobile phones were taken away. One of the attackers had snatched away their mobile phones by then," she said. Barla, an adivasi land rights' activist, is up against seven-time BJP MP Kariya Munda apart from the Jharkhand Party's Ekka.

The AAP candidate said that her supporters were asked to campaign for Anosh Ekka, a minister in the Madhu Koda cabinet who faces - among others - cases on disproportionate assets. "One of the men claimed that he was a Zonal Commander of the PLFI. My supporters were made to hold their ears [as if in apology] and say that they would stop campaigning for me and do so only for Ekka. After that, they were told to leave the village, leaving one of the two women in the group back," said Barla.

The woman who was left back could have been killed if it were not for the police, according to Barla. "The held a revolver close to her and asked her to go around the village, touching the feet of people and asking for votes for Anosh Ekka. The police got there by the time she was doing it a third time," she said.

The first threat was on April 6 in Arki block's Birbanki, though AAP activists were not sure whether it was the PLFI. Around three in the afternoon, seven AAP activists were stopped by armed men on motorbikes, who took away their car keys, telling them they would be back within half an hour. When no on returned till seven in the evening, the men split up and escaped on foot, reaching safety by walking all night. Barla says the first signs of trouble came on the day she submitted her nomination papers, when some people tried to stop her supporters from reaching the district headquarters. "Someone also threatened that Jabda village in Karra would be set on fire because my supporters are from there," said Barla.

The AAP activists have not taken the threats lying down, though. "Some of our activists dared to go into Lepa, [PLFI's Supreme Commander] Dinesh Gope's village in Torpa and handed his chachi a pamphlet. We also went into Rania [where the PLFI is known to have held training camps] and nailed pamphlets to walls," said Vinay Bhat, a 30-year-old who has taken a three-month sabbatical from his job as a management consultant in the US to assist Barla's campaign.

The police offered Barla a security cover, which she turned down. "The PLFI men clicked my supporters' pictures on their mobile phones, so we are really worried about what happens when the elections are done," said Barla.

Barla, a former journalist with the Prabhat Khabar newspaper, still operates a tea shop on Ranchi city's Club Road. Two of her most biggest agitations were located within Khunti's Torpa block - the one against the Koel-Karo dam during which eight adivasis were shot dead on February 2, 2001 and against an ArcelorMittal steel plant that would have displaced people in 40 villages. "Back then too, there were threats. However, we did not really know whether it was the politicians of the area who wanted these projects or the extremists who were responsible," she said.

Anis Gupta, Khunti's Superintendent of Police said that the FIRs were being investigated. "There are no names in the April 6 case but we are trying to identify the six men responsible for the April 9 attack," he said.

Khunti has a significant adivasi Christian population, but they broadly fall into two denominations - the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran and Roman Catholic. Anosh Ekka hopes that the two will come together to help him make a stand against the BJP candidate. However, there is a feeling that some of the Catholic votes could go Barla's way.

AAP Jharkhand split imminent; rebels to boycott 7 of 8 candidates

Ranchi, March 24

The Aam Aadmi Party in Jharkhand is on the verge of a split, with a section of its leaders deciding on Monday to boycott all but one of the party's eight official candidates and to nominate alternate candidates in four Lok Sabha constituencies.

The meeting, attended by party workers including a member of the now-disbanded Preparatory Committee and the former Ranchi Convenor of the AAP, decided that they would support only Khunti candidate Dayamani Barla. The rebel group has also laid claim to the AAP's official status and election symbol.

"We have decided to nominate Amit Kumar, who has been part of the anti-corruption movement for three years, as the Ranchi candidate. We will also have candidates in Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and Hazaribag. We are the AAP; our candidates will demand the broom as election symbol," said Sunil Mahato, former member of the Preparatory Committee.

Trouble within the party began on February 5, when the AAP's state incharge Somnath Tripathi tried to announce the formation of a 11-member Election Campaign Committee in Ranchi. AAP members had disrupted his press conference, alleging that most members of the committee were not even party members.

The immediate anger was brought on by the identity of the party's Ranchi candidate Amanullah Aman, whom the rebel leaders allege is not even an AAP member. "He did not even submit an online application for candidature. Amanullah Aman lives in Lohardaga - in 2012, he tried to contest the Hatia asembly bypoll on a Congress ticket; in 2009, he tried to get a Lok Sabha seat from the JVM(P). He is no different from the people the Aam Aadmi Party is trying to throw out," claimed former Ranchi Convenor, Ajay Chaudhary.

The disgruntlement spread and has now affected seven of the AAP's candidates in the state. "Most of them were not active in the party; they have not worked among the people here. Dayamani Barla is the only exception, so we will support her. Everybody else was sent from Delhi without consulting party workers in the state. This is no Swaraj," said Sunil Mahato.

Amanullah Aman is an IIT-Kharagpur graduate who says he left a life of luxury to serve the people. "After leaving the corporate world, I have been working for the people since 2007, but never got to fight an election. I have been involved in several election campaigns. The AAP has given me a chance, I will do my best. It is a democratic country and anybody is free to contest against me," he said. Incidentally, JVM(P)'s Ranchi candidate Amitabh Choudhary is also an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus.

Koda Nemesis Joins BSP

Ranchi, March 10
This was published here: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/politics/oraon-joins-bsp-to-contest-from-ranchi-ls-seat/

Durga Oraon, whose Public Interest Litigation was the reason the Jharkhand High Court initiated action against former chief minister Madhu Koda in 2008, joined the BSP on Monday and will contest from the Ranchi Lok Sabha seat.

He joined in the presence of Brijlal Khabri, the party's Jharkhand incharge.

Oraon (40), the chairperson of the Jharkhand Against Corruption movement, had been approached by the Aam Aadmi Party. The AAP saw him as an ideal candidate to lead the party in Jharkhand, but talks went nowhere. "Someone from the AAP had come to meet me at home. After that, no one contacted me. The AAP in Jharkhand is over; there is no enthusiasm anymore," said Oraon.

He was known as Durga Munda before his activism days, had contested the 2013 Ranchi Municipal Corporation's Mayoral elections. Following the seizure of money allegedly intended for distribution among voters, the election was called off despite voting having taken place. A re-poll has not yet taken place.

On Monday, Oraon claimed that Mayawati's outlook on social justice had attracted him. "I have been fighting for justice. What Mayawatiji has done is the same - to get rid of social inequalities that exist around us," he said, adding that the corruption charges against his new leader did not worry him.

Oraon was even given a security detail and took extreme measures to protect his whereabouts in 2008 after he filed the PIL against Koda. The change in surname was made in the PIL to protect himself. That PIL led to a CBI inquiry, and the arrest of Koda and three of his ministers.