Jharkhand Elections: Ex-BJP leaders Lois Marandi, Kunal Sarangi join CM Hemant Soren’s JMM, ‘Gave so much to BJP, but…’

Jharkhand Assembly Elections: Ahead of the upcoming state assembly polls, former BJP leaders Dr Lois Marandi, Kunal Sarangi, and Ganesh Mahali joined Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Monday and met CM Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana Soren.

Dr Loise Marandi was the former BJP Vice President from the state and joined Hemant Soren's party after she was denied a ticket from her home constituency, Dumka, and was asked to contest the election from Bahrai. Meanwhile, Kunal Sarangi cited his struggles in getting promotion as one of the reasons to exit the saffron party.

“I gave 24 years to Dumka so how can I contest the election from Barhait? I know nothing about that place but I know everything about Dumka...so I refused to contest election from Barhait. Party did not listen and fielded someone else from Dumka...I need a platform to serve the people...I spoke to CM Hemant Soren and he welcomed…,” ANI quoted Dr Lois Marandi as saying.

Expressing her disappointment with the saffron party after being denied Dumka constituency, Dr Lois Marandi said, “I gave so much time to the party (BJP), day and night I kept working for the people and obeyed every instruction of the party with at most sincerity but when the elections came, party told me to contest from Barhait.”

Sarangi says promotion in BJP is possible if one has ‘degrees in corruption’

Ex-BJP leader Kunal Sarangi joined the JMM party after he failed to get any opportunity to grow and perform in the BJP. Sarangi told ANI that he had returned to JMM after he was disappointed with BJP because of ‘corruption and sycophancy’.

“I have come back to my family, it is not a rejoining because this was the platform which was given to me by CM Hemant Soren which offered me an opportunity to enter Jharkhand politics and serve people...now I have returned because when I had joined BJP, I went with a thought that perhaps through a national platform I would get to serve more people...but contrary to that the only parameter that they have is, in order to get promoted...is how many 'Ganesh parikramas' you do every day and absolute sycophancy...perhaps you also need to have few degrees in corruption,” ANI quoted Sarangi as saying.

"So these are the learnings that I have received in the last four and half years stay in that party and I am very happy that I have retured to where I started my politcial journey from," he added.