Ranchi: The Maoists have made their
presence felt in Jharkhand, but a former Naxalite will now be
seen in action in the Jharkhand assembly.
Paulus Surin, who became the first Maoist having come
overground and successfully contested the assembly election,
trounced the sitting BJP MLA Koche Munda with a handscome
margin of 17,799 votes from the Torpa seat in Khunti district,
about 60 km from here, on JMM ticket.
Kameshwar Baitha, the JMM MP from Palamau and a former
Maoist, won the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 from behind bars and
is still incarcerated.
Another former Maoist Kuldeep Ganju contested the
assembly polls on AJSU ticket from the Simariya seat but
lost in the hustings.
The Maoists had a presence in at least 18 of the 24
district of Jharkhand.
Disowning the former Maoists, who contested the assembly
polls, CPI(Maoist) leader Kishanji said they had been expelled
from the organisation some three-four years back.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, December 27, 2009, 17:04