As home of Pathalgadi movement goes to polls today, can BJP retain its stronghold?

The BJP candidate from the seat, sitting MLA Nilkanth Singh Munda, has won all Assembly elections he contested since 2000. This time, he takes on the JMM’s Ram Surya Munda.

Sukhram, a resident of Maranghada village, is still angry at having spent time in prison for what he claims were “wrongs we did not commit”. He is among 182 people who were chargesheeted in around 30 cases, including under charges of sedition. “I have been acquitted in one case while sedition charges have been removed in other cases. However, the incarceration has taken a toll on us,” Sukhram said. He was released from jail in 2021 after his family sold their livestock and mortgaged a piece of land to pay lawyer fees.

Although Khunti went to the BJP in 2019, the post-Pathalgadi election saw the party win just two of the 28 ST-reserved seats in Jharkhand. The JMM won 25 of them.

Not far from Sukhram’s house, in Bhandra village, four persons on two motorbikes carried BJP flags and posters, and made rounds in the village. One of them, 23-year-old Miusu Lohra, said he did not feel there was any anger against the BJP candidate among the tribal community.

“We have been given a job and we are helping Munda ji win the elections. Everyone at my home, too, supports him,” said Lohra, who is also from a tribal community.

BJP stalwart Kariya Munda, a seven-time MP, had represented the Khunti parliamentary constituency in Lok Sabha until 2019, when the BJP did not nominate him. A BJP worker said: “BJP has been strong here because of Kariya Munda’s legacy. But now, tribals are not very happy with the BJP.”

Interestingly, the current MP of Khunti, Kalicharan Munda from the Congress, is the brother of the BJP Assembly candidate Nilkanth Singh Munda.

Geeta Devi, who has recently started a grocery shop, says her family has always voted for Nilkanth, but a lack of development has given them cause for rethink. “We believe that a time has come for change, and we will vote for the JMM candidate. However, votes will split between the various Independents and JMM,” she said.

On Wednesday, 43 of Jharkhand’s 81 Assembly seats go to the polls.