Banned from polls, Madhu Koda now manages wife’s campaign

Chaibasa: Former chief minister Madhu Koda, who has been banned from contesting polls after he was convicted in a Rs 4,000 crore mining scam, has turned poll-manager for his wife and mahagathbandhan’s Singhbhum candidate Geeta Koda (Congress). The Koda couple joined Congress in October last year, despite being perceived as close to BJP.
An MLA from Jagannathpur, Geeta is up against BJP’s incumbent MP and state party president Laxman Gilua. The constituency, which will go to the polls on May 12, has six assembly segments, of which JMM has five and Congress has one.
For the last two months, the former CM has been spending about 16 hours a day on the road to campaign for wife. “On an average, the two of us are spending 16-17 hours touring places and meeting people. I leave home as early as 6am,” Madhu said at Congress’s office on Tuesday night after travelling more than 200km through the day. Before settling down for a series of meetings with booth-level workers, Madhu said: “BJP ko bhagana hai, adivasiyon ko bachana hai toh mehnat karna hai.”
Madhu Koda started his political career as a BJP MLA from Jaganathpur in undivided Bihar in 2000. After Jharkhand was carved out Bihar later that year, he went on to become a minister in the Babulal Marandi cabinet. He left BJP and contested the 2005 assembly elections from the same seat as an independent candidate after the party refused him a ticket. He emerged victorious.
In September 2006, Madhu and three other independent legislators withdrew support from the Arjun Munda-led BJP government, leading to the resignation of chief minister. With the support of JMM and others, Madhu took over as chief minister on September 14, becoming only the third independent candidate in the history of the country to hold the post of a CM. In 2009, he won from the Singhbhum Lok Sabha constituency as an independent candidate.
In November 2009, Koda was arrested and convicted in connection with the mining scam. He was released on bail in 2013. Soon after, Geeta contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from his constituency but lost by a huge margin. In 2017, the Election Commission banned Madhu from contesting polls for three years for failing to file expense details during the 2009 polls.
Madhu is very much aware of the hardships and tricks of the trade. He is chalking out Geeta’s daily schedule, poll pitches and route maps in consultation with party leaders. He has his own tasks cut out too, which includes strengthening booths, and other managerial works.
Madhu and Geeta have however avoided campaigning together and he doesn’t even share the stage with mahagathbandhan leaders addressing rallies backing his wife. Political observers say it a strategic decision to counter the corruption charges against him.
“I have been implicated falsely. My voters and the people are aware about it. It won’t have any bearing on Geeta’s prospects,” he said. “Taking different routes for campaigning is only to make the beset use of the time available to us. I have my own support base, Geeta has her own,” he added.
Geeta agreed. Flagging issues in Singhbhum, she said, “Tribals are still struggling for basic needs — water, food, nutrition, jobs etc. For them, their daily meal is more important than anything else. The biggest fear among tribals is the threat of losing their identity and land. They have decided to vote for change.”