Jamshedpur: A day after the poll results were announced, residents of Jamshedpur seemed unhappy as there would be no minister from either of the two urban seats — Jamshedpur East and Jamshedpur West — of Kolhan division for the first time since Jharkhand was carved out from Bihar.
In the last 24 years, one of these two seats or both had representations in the state cabinet.As Jamshedpur (East) MLA, Raghubar Das was the chief minister, deputy chief minister and minister holding different portfolios, including finance. Das also holds the record of being the state's only CM who has been in office without break for a full five-year term. Earlier, he was the deputy CM from 2009 to 2010 in the JMM-BJP coalition govt headed by Shibu Soren. Das also headed several ministries in the Babulal Marandi and Arjun Munda govts, too.
The state's first CM Babulal Marandi also made BJP heavyweight Migendra Pratap Singh, an MLA from Jamshedpur (West), the finance minister. Singh, a tall Rajput politician, had great influence among his electorate even in undivided Bihar as Jamshedpur (West) has a large chunk of voters from his community. Singh won the Jamshedpur seat three times of which two are in a row in 1995 and 2000.
His BJP successor for the seat in 2005, Saryu Roy, is also from the same community. Roy held several portfolios in the previous BJP alliance govts and his last ministership was in the Das cabinet, where he headed the food and supply department.
In the Hemant govt (2019-2024), Jamshedpur (West) was represented by Congress candidate Banna Gupta, who held several important portfolios including the health ministry. Gupta was also the disaster control minister and he was given charge of the food supply department in July this year.
Now, with both MLAs elected from Jamshedpur West and East, Saryu Roy and Purnima Sahu, being from the NDA fold, there will be no representation in the new Hemant cabinet.
Talking to TOI on Sunday, Anan Dey, an employee at a city-based hospital, "I hope the new govt does not turn a blind eye to Jamshedpur as it will have no one in the cabinet for the first time."
Echoing similar sentiments, Rajeev Agarwal, a businessman from Golmuri, said, "The new govt has to fulfil the aspirations of the masses after getting a thumping majority and the development of Jamshedpur should be on its list even though the city will none in the ministry."