Efforts on for a consensus candidate for Lohardaga bypoll:Cong

Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee (JPCC) president Sukhdeo Bhagat today said efforts are on the put up a consensus candidate in the by-elections to the Lohardagga Assembly seat after the sitting MLA of Ajsu party Kamal Kishore Bhagat lost his Assembly membership.
Kamal Kishore Bhagat lost his Jharkhand Assembly membership a week after being sentenced to seven years imprisonment by a local court.
Bhagat, who won the Assembly polls from Lohardaga in December 2014, was awarded the prison sentence by the court of Additional Judicial Commissioner Krishna Kumar in a case of attack on a doctor in 1993.
With the disqualification of Bhagat, the state Assembly strength was reduced to 81 and Ajsu party, which had won five seats in the Assembly elections, has now four MLAs.

Addressing a press conference here, the JPCC functionary said efforts were on to put up a consensus candidate to defeat the BJP and he had discussions in this regard with the president of Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) Babulal Marandi and JMM working president Hemant Soren recently.
The JPCC leader expressed confidence that the party's two-month long 'Gaon Gaon, Paon Paon' programme against the Land Acquisition Bill, which he described as a land grabbing bill and other people-oriented issues would pay desirable dividends to the party.