Ranchi: Last time it was smooth sailing for External Affairs Minister and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) candidate Yashwant Sinha who is trying to score a hatrick from the Hazaribag Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand this time around facing two former MPs (Members of Parliament) a saffron party rebel Mahabirlal Viswakarma and a united Opposition candidate, Bhubaneswar Prasad Mehta of the CPI (Communist Party of India).

Of significance is the goodwill of Muslims for Sinha who has worked for their development, observers say.

However, Mehta claims that Sinha would have a hard time following "resentment" in the BJP ranks in Hazaribag, with Viswakarma in the fray and the people unhappy with him for ignoring their basic demands.

"Now the electorate has a chance to teach Sinha a lesson," Mehta, a winner in 1991, says. The CPI State secretary is backed by the Congress, the JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morch), the RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) and left parties.

Brushing this aside, Sinha says he has worked on many projects worth crores of rupees in Hazaribag, which earlier MPs had neglected during their tenures.

"I am confident of drubbing the united Opposition candidate hands down on the development factor. No other MP has spent as much as I did from my MP fund. Let them show what they have done during their tenures," challenges Sinha.

Expressing surprise over expelled BJP leader Viswakarma throwing his hat into the ring, Sinha dismisses him as a threat. "There will not be any adverse influence on the poll result just because he is in the fray," he said.

The Jharkhand unit chief of the Janata Dal-United (JDU), Goutam Sagar Rana, and the president of All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) Sudesh Mahto, also a Minister, feels otherwise.

"Had the BJP allotted a seat each to its constituents Sinha would have sailed smoothly through as our workers will have worked for him," says the duo.

On whether the caste factor would play any role, the Union Minister says, "In Hazaribag development and not caste will be a factor. No person can claim to have secured contracts for his caste votes and the electorate will exercise their franchise at their own will."

Not leaving any stone unturned in campaigning, roping in BJP's top leaders and film stars to campaign for him in his constituency, Sinha says, "I am unable to say who is in the contest with me here. Whosoever believes to be contesting me is in reality contesting for the second position."

Apart from the three main contestants, the others in the fray are, Chandraprakash Choudhari of AJSU, Shyam Bihari Prajapati of Bahujan Samaj Party, Mukesh Kumar of Lok Janshakti Party, Vijay Prakas of Samajwadi Party and Hira Gope of CPI-ML(Communist Party Marxist Leninist).

Former Bihar Chief Minister K B Sahay's grandson, Prashant, is also in the field of fourteen as an independent.