By Rabindra Nath Sinha
KOLKATA: It is not just that the Bharatiya Janata Party cut a sorry figure in the electoral battle 2024 for Jharkhand assembly despite a high octane campaigning that had strong communal overtones and in which the party’s money power was all too evident. Some new developments, which may shape future politics of Jharkhand, too marked the election 2024 for the state’s 81-member Assembly.
The most visible development is the emergence Kalpana Soren, wife of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s executive president and chief minister Hemant Soren. Kalpana, who is an MBA and a B Tech graduate and started her political journey on March 4 this year at JMM’s foundation day celebrations, hogged the limelight by winning a bye-election from Gandey Assembly seat in Giridih district. Since then, in the short period of nine months, it has been a story of uninterrupted rise aided by circumstances Hemant found himself in and which cost him his chiefministership.
The second development is the rise into prominence of Jharkhand’s second OBC kudmi politician, 30 year-old ‘Tiger’ Jairam Mahato. An MA in English literature and doing his PhD, Jairam launched his party, Jharkhand Loktantrk Krantikari Morcha (JLKM), some six months back and secured the Election Commission’s registration. Before Jairam’s emergence on the state’s political space and sections of the electorate started taking notice of him, his invocation of Jharkhandi asmita and emphasis on all factors local and state-related, the OBC kudmi Mahato segment of the population had been depending on the leadership of All Jharkhand Students’ Union’s chief Sudesh Mahato, who was a deputy chief minister between 2010 and 2013.
Jairam fielded candidates on 71 Assembly seats and he himself fought on two constituencies – Dumri and Bermo. He happened to be JLKM’s lone winner (from Dumri). Before the Assembly elections, Jairam had fielded candidates on eight Lok Sabha seats as Independents. He himself was a candidate for the Giridih Lok Sabha seat. He came third but secured nearly 3.47 lakh votes. After a break-up before the 2019 Assembly elections, Sudesh’s AJSU resumed partnership with BJP for the 2024 Assembly elections. BJP left 10 seats to AJSU, which included Silli in the Ranchi district for Sudesh.
AJSU bagged only one seat and the surprise of surprises was the defeat of Sudesh himself. According to political observers, the Jairam impact was visible in the sense JLKM nominees could cut into votes of candidates of other parties, including AJSU. The kudmi community comprises 15 per cent of Jharkhand’s electorate and is considered significant – next to the tribals who constitute 26 per cent of the electorate. Out of 81 Assembly seats, 28 belong to the ST category.
According to 2011 census data, the OBC kudmi community accounted for 8.6 per cent of the state’s population of an estimated four crore. Thus, the kudmi population may be placed at 35-36 lakh. Votes garnered by JLKM nominees in the Assembly election is said to adversely impacted the performance of the established parties in some 12-14 constituencies in the kudmi-dominated areas of Dhanbad, Giridih, Ramgarh, Ranch and Bokaro.
Political observers are near-unanimous that the arrest on January 31 last under PMLA by the Enforcement Directorate of Hemant Soren on charges of money laundering in an alleged land scam case had angered the tribal community as also non-tribals. It was seen as a vindictive action by ED “at the instance of powers-that-be” in New Delhi against a tribal chief minister although the BJP leaders lose no opportunity to express support and sympathy for them. The regular bail granted by Jharkhand High Court Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay on June 28 last strengthened the belief of the tribal community and non-tribals that Hemant had been victimised. After the arrest, Hemant had no option but to resign and senior JMM leader Champai Soren became chief minister. After getting regular bail, Hemant returned to the post on July 4 this year.
During this period, Kalpana played a key role in reaching out to the voters, particularly women voters and explaining to them the welfare schemes that had been launched by the incumbent government. During the campaign phase, she addressed over 100 rallies and won again the Gandey seat by a good margon.
The arrest episode paid rich electoral dividends to JMM, in particular as al to other INDIA bloc constituents. In the assessment of Jharkhand state CITU secretary Biswajit Deb, even adivasi voters who are traditionally CPM and other Left party supporters this time round supported JMM. AJSU spokesperson Deo Sharan Bhagat told IPA that the arrest episode and the blatant polarising campaign by the BJP top brass by raising the issue of infiltration by Bangladeshis and the resultant demographic disruption in the Santhal Pargana region led to consolidation of votes in favour of the ruling JMM-led coalition.
Those contributing to the consolidation obviously included the muslim and Christian voters. The BJP campaigners failed to appreciate that their caustic remarks would be detested by voters. One such caustic remark was: “Ranchi was fast turning into Karachi” and that this was happening under the watch of the Hemant-led ministry. Bhagat contended that if consolidation was a reality, division too was a fact, thanks to the Jairam Mahato factor.
State secretary of CPI-ML (L) Manoj Bhakt told IPA that the BJP leaders’ relentless attempts to spread hatred against Muslims and harp on infiltration by Bangladeshis had no takers. CPI-ML (L) had put up candidates in four seats, which included Dhanwar for which JMM too had put up a candidate. The party won two seats – Nirsa where Arup Chatterjee was the victor and Sindri which was bagged by Chandradeo Mahato alia Bablu Mahato. Both the candidates belong to erstwhile Marxist Coordination Committee which in September last merged into CPI-ML (L). For Chatterjee, this will be his fourth term as an MLA. He told IPA that among his priorities would be to get the drinking water supply situation improved and construction / commissioning of IIT at Maithon expedited.
Bhagat, however, cautioned the new JMM-led ministry would have to implement the promises, particularly those related to jal, jangal and jameen and take effective steps against corruption. The corruption against the ministry can’t be wished away, he added. (IPA Service)
