Ramgarh: Nirmal Mahto, the lone Ajsu-P MLA and first-time legislator from the Mandu assembly constituency, has announced his intention to resign from his new-found position to make way for party president Sudesh Mahto, who lost to JMM's Amit Mahto in the Silli constituency. Nirmal said Sudesh should fight from the Mandu seat in the bye-election.
Nirmal, who won the Mandu seat by a narrow margin of 231 votes, said his offer to step down from the Jharkhand assembly membership was prompted by Sudesh's unexpected defeat, which he considers unfortunate for both the party chief and the organisation.
"I have submitted my resignation letter to Sudesh Mahto, requesting him to forward it to the Jharkhand assembly. I have also urged him to contest the upcoming Mandu by-election once the seat is vacant," the newly elected MLA said.
In the recent election, Ajsu-P secured only one seat out of its allocated 10 seats under the NDA alliance. While Nirmal Mahto emerged victorious from Mandu, other prominent Ajsu-P candidates, including Sudesh Mahto (Silli) and Sunita Choudhary (Ramgarh), suffered defeat.
The Mandu constituency witnessed a close contest where Nirmal Mahto secured 90,871 votes, defeating Congress candidate Jai Prakash Bhai Patel who got 90,640 votes. Notably, in the 2019 assembly election, Patel, then with BJP, had defeated Nirmal Mahto by about 2,000 votes. The constituency remained with NDA after BJP allocated it to Ajsu-P following Patel's switch to Congress before the parliamentary election.
Ajsu-P central committee secretary Jaleshwar Mahto confirmed that the Mandu MLA has submitted his resignation to party chief Sudesh Kumar Mahto, who will make the final decision on the matter.