Will send fourth CM to jail: Rebel BJP candidate

A day after filing his nomination papers from the prestigious Jamshedpur (East) constituency, Saryu Rai, the rebel BJP leader and a senior minister in Raghubar Das government, said he would send the fourth chief minister to jail.

Rai, who quit as food and civil supplies minister in Jharkhand government two days back after being denied BJP ticket from his traditional seat Jamshedpur (West), is now contesting against Das as an Independent. His resignation has not been accepted yet.

“Corruption in Jharkhand is ten times bigger than the fodder scam. It seems I will have to send the fourth chief minister to jail,” said Rai, an anti-corruption crusader, who was instrumental in sending former chief ministers in undivided Bihar — Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra — to jail in the fodder scam. He played a key role in sending former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda to jail in the mining scam.

"Das is such a ‘daag’ (stain), which cannot be washed with a Modi detergent in an Amit Shah laundry," the rebel BJP leader reportedly said.

Of late, Rai has been levelling several corruption charges against the Jharkhand government, a move reportedly disapproved by BJP’s top leadership. It was this displeasure of the BJP high command which played a major role while denying Assembly ticket to Rai from Jamshedpur (West).

Nitish backs Rai

Rai, whose friendship with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is well known despite the two being in different parties, has been assured of JD(U)’s unconditional support. “The JD(U) has decided to back Saryu Rai in Jamshedpur (East), who is contesting against Raghubar Das as an Independent. As such, we will not field any candidate from that constituency,” a senior JD(U) leader told DH here on Tuesday.

The JD(U) is the second political party to have pledged its support to Rai. Earlier, JMM working president Hemant Soren had promised Rai his full backing despite the fact that JMM’s alliance partner Congress fielded its national spokesperson Prof Gaurav Vallabh as its nominee in Jamshedpur (East).

Money matters

Meanwhile, Rai, while filing his nomination on Monday, declared that his assets were Rs 4.35 crore, a rise of around 40% from the assets declared during 2014 Assembly polls (Rs 3.13 crore).

His opponent and Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das, on the other hand, has declared an asset of Rs 85.08 lakh, around 15% increase from his net worth of Rs 72.72 lakh in 2014.