National cyclist pitted against amateur golfer

JAMSHEDPUR: The Kharsawan assembly constituency has turned out to be a cynosure of all eyes with Dashrath alias Krishna Gagrai, a national level cyclist of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha being pitted against former chief Minister Arjun Munda, who is also an amateur golfer.
With all eyes set keenly on Kharsawan, the home constituency of the leader of opposition Munda, Gagrai seems undaunted by his formidable rival.Having won medals in many state and national level cycling events, he is confident of doing a David versus Goliath which he failed to do way back in 2011 by polls.
"In 2011, Arjun Munda was the CM and had made many promises to the people of this state. Compared to him, I was relatively lesser known. On the contrary, he enjoyed a wider scope for publicity. People voted for him for development which never took place in this constituency during his tenure. This is why the coming elections may prove to be Mundaji's Waterloo," said the JMM candidate on his way to door-to-door campaign in Kharsawan on Thursday.
Gagrai was defeated by his nearest rival Munda by 17,386 votes in the Kharsawan by-polls. He contested on a Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) ticket. Munda was elected thrice from Kharsawan during his tenure as CM. He was once elected on a JMM ticket from here in 1995.
Gagrai, who also loves to play football with village kids occasionally, is banking on the work done by the Hemant Soren government for his victory. "It was only when Hemant took over as the CM that things started to change for the better in Kharsawan. The government did a lot of development work here.
Munda too is expecting a sure victory from Kharsawan as he put it on his visit to city, "BJP is going to sweep all seats in the state under the leadership of Narendra Modi. It is certainly going to be the single largest party with full majority this election," he said.