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BJP's Sudarshan eyeing a hat-trick

Gumla: If BJP candidate from Lohardaga , Sudarshan Bhagat , manages to win the LS seat in the forthcoming polls, he will be only the second person to win this prestigious constituency three times on the trot.

At present, the record is held by Sumati Oraon . She was first elected to Parliament in the 1982 bypoll on a Congress ticket.

The seat had fallen vacant after the demise of her husband Kartik Oraon, who was a Congress MP and a Union minister.

In 1984, Sumati Oraon defeated BJP candidate Lalit Oraon by over one lakh votes. Then, she again won in 1989.

“There were only two women Congress MPs — my mother (Sumati) and Krishna Shahi from Bihar — in 1989,” recalled Geetashree Oraon, daughter of Sumati Oraon.

Bhagat, who is currently a junior minister at the centre, first won Lohardaga in 2009. In 2014, Bhagat defeated his nearest rival, Congress’s Rameshwar Oraon, a former IPS officer. tnn

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