Jharkhand: After father, mother, now daughter becomes MLA

Ranchi: Amba Prasad, 31, the youngest legislator to be elected to the Jharkhand Assembly in the 2019 polls, is the third person in her family to be elected from the same constituency, Barkagao.

Her father Yogendra Prasad Sao was elected from this seat in 2009 and became a Minister in the Hemant Soren government in 2013. But, he had to resign after his links with Maoists came to light in 2014.

Owing to the cases pending against him, Prasad opted out of the Assembly poll race and had his wife, Nirmal Devi, fielded from Barkagao. Nirmal Devi won the seat in 2014 and is also charged with several criminal cases.

In 2016, she led a villagers’ protest against the land acquisition for state-run power generator NTPC at Barkagao, which provoked police firing causing the deaths of five people. She was sent to jail.

Yogendra Sao has also spent many months in jail. Both were given bail by the Supreme Court with a condition that they will not stay in Jharkhand.

In the recent Assembly elections, the Congress party gave a ticket to the couple’s daughter, Amba Prasad, and she defeated her nearest rival, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) candidate Roshanlal Chaudhary, by over 31,000 votes.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi campaigned for her during the Assembly polls.

The family members alleged that the Raghubar Das government fabricated cases against the Sao family.

In 2016, Yogendra Sao recorded an audio and video during the Rajya Sabha polls in which Raghubar Das was allegedly trying to lure him to ensure that his legislator wife votes in favour of the BJP candidate.

Published on: Dec 24, 2019 at 15:20 IST

IANS