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Jamshedpur seat: Abha, Nitish Bharadwaj youngest winners, Gopeshwar oldest

JAMSHEDPUR: In the Lok Sabha elections between 1957 and 2014, BJP's Nitish Bharadwaj and Abha Mahato from the same party were the youngest candidates from Jamshedpur constituency, who were voted to the House. Both Nitish and Abha were 34 when they were elected MPs, whereas the seniormost lawmaker from Jamshedpur seat was Congress's Gopeshwar .

He was elected at the age of 63.


In 1996 BJP played a gamble -- Nitish Bharadwaj (tele artist, who rose to fame playing the Krishna's role in mega TV soap Mahabharata) -- was pitted against political veteran Inder Singh Namdhari.

Namdhari, a known face in Bihar politics, was a member of Bihar legislative assembly for six times. He held the post of cabinet minister too. Later, he became the first speaker of Jharkhand assembly.

Nitish a fresh face in political circles was given a warm welcome by both the urban and rural voters of Jamshedpur constituency. He was 34 when he won the prestigious electoral battle.

Safforn party fielded Abha Mahato, wife of Sailendra Mahato, in 1998 LS polls. She was also 34 at that time. When the Vajpayee government fell and fresh polls were conducted in 1999, Abha Mahato was again elected to the Lok Sabha.

In the 1998 Lok Sabha polls Abha rode the Vajapyee wave and defeated popular candidate Russy Mody, who had retired as the chairman of Tata Steel. Russy Mody had contested as an independent candidate. Mody was a popular face among the employees of the Tata Steel in urban areas and the tribal population in the rural parts of Jamshedpur constituency.

Sailendra Mahto, who had won the Jamshedpur seat under the JMM banner, quit the party and joined BJP and fielded his wife Abha. Like her husband Abha also won the seat twice under the BJP banner. She lost the seat to JMM’s Sunil Mahato in 2004 polls.

Meanwhile, Gopeshwar, who held the post of general secretary of Telco Workers’ Union and a veteran Congressman, was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jamshedpur seat at the age of 63.

After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, during the 1984 LS polls, Congress was voted back to power under Rajiv Gandhi. Riding on the Congress wave after Indira’s death, labour leader Gopeshwar defeated CPI candidate Tika Ram Manjhi. Left leader Manjhi, a known face in political circles, was blown away by the sympathy wave for the Grand Old Party.

Incidentally, after Gopeshwar, till date Congress has not managed to win the Jamshedpur seat, once considered to be its stronghold.

Notably, most of the other winners from the Jamshedpur seat were in the age groups between 50 and 60.

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