BJP firms up Jharkhand game plan: NDA to tribal push, ‘anti-incumbency’ to JMM rebels

JMM stalwart Champai Soren, who is joining the BJP on August 30, has rebelled against Hemant, alleging that he was “humiliated” by the JMM leadership into stepping down as the CM to hand back the reins of the government to the latter following his release from jail on bail two months ago.

The BJP leaders say Champai Soren’s induction into the party would help it make a comeback in the Kolhan region, Champai’s turf, while also “exposing” the JMM leadership by highlighting “how Hemant was trying to run the government from jail”.

“In the past we had made the mistake of going to the elections alone. But this time, we will contest it as NDA. The discussions with the JD(U) and LJP (Ram Vilas) are almost done and there will be an announcement soon,” said a BJP insider.

Speaking to The Indian Express, senior BJP MP from Jharkhand, Nishikant Dubey, said: “BJP with allies are set to fight this election together after a long gap. Those who had left the BJP have returned to the party fold. There is a third front also coming up for the first time and taking up the tribal issues, which has the potential to split the tribal votes. Moreover, the JMM is in disarray with its senior leaders rebelling against the leadership. With Champai Soren joining us, he will tell the people how Hemant Soren had run the government from jail.”

Veteran Jharkhand leader Surya Singh Besra, who heads the Jharkhand People’s Party, is making efforts to stitch up a “third front” for the Assembly polls.

With three states and the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir heading to the Assembly polls this year – Haryana and J&K are up for polls during September-October, with Jharkhand and Maharashtra going to the hustings by the year-end – the BJP has high-stakes in these polls as winning them could consolidate its dominant position in national politics in the wake of its underwhelming performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

The All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU)’s chief Sudesh Mahto has asserted that he would be a part of the NDA for the Assembly polls. Both Champai and Mahto along with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP co-incharge of the Jharkhand polls, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi earlier this week.

The BJP insider said the party has been in discussions with both the JD(U) and the LJP (RV) over the seat-sharing. “This will be finalised soon,” he said.

LJP(RV) chief and Union minister Chirag Paswan has said his party would go alone only if there is no consensus over the seat-sharing. Although the JD(U) initially staked its claim over around a dozen seats out of the state’s 81 seats, its talks with the BJP are still on.

BJP sources admitted that the biggest challenge facing the party in the state is the tribal vote. In 2019, after having been in power for five years under a non-tribal CM Raghubar Das, the BJP lost the polls

to the JMM-led coalition comprising the Congress and the RJD, which are now constituents of the INDIA bloc.

In the recent Lok Sabha polls, out of the state’s 14 seats the BJP won 8 and the AJSU got one seat, but the BJP lost all five Scheduled Tribes (ST)-reserved seats to the INDIA alliance. Of them, the BJP lost four seats – Khunti (where ex-CM Arjun Munda was in the fray), Lohardaga, Singhbhum and Rajamahal – by a big margin. The BJP’s subpar performance was ascribed to the “tribal backlash” against Hemant’s arrest by the ED in an alleged money laundering case. The BJP leaders also attribute it to “resentment” among the Dalit and tribal communities against the party because of the INDIA alliance’s “misleading campaign” against it over the Constitution and reservation.

The BJP leaders pointed out that the party had faced a rout in Kolhan, its stronghold since 1980s, in the 2019 polls, when it had lost all 14 seats in the belt due to the revolt of Saryu Roy, who had quit the party and went on to defeat the then incumbent CM Raghubar Das as an Independent from the Jamshedpur East constituency. “But after inducting senior leaders like Champai Soren and Geeta Koda now, the BJP can win back at least 8-9 seats in Kolhan,” said a party leader. Roy joined the JD(U) early this month.

Champai has said that he decided to join the BJP to “protect the tribal identity and existence”, claiming that it is the “only party that is serious about tribal issues”.

The BJP has also been targeting the Hemant government by raking up issues like “illegal infiltration” and “tribal girls’ marriage with infiltrators”. Raising it in the Lok Sabha in the Budget session, Dubey alleged that Jharkhand’s tribal population has declined by 10% and that tribal women were getting married to Bangladeshi men in the state. Sarma has also criticised the JMM-Congress government for “maintaining silence” over the issue, which he alleged was linked to their “vote bank politics”.

The BJP leaders claim that the infiltration issue has made a “deep impact” on the Santal Pargana region, which accounts for 18 of the state’s total 28 ST-reserved seats. Currently, the party has only four of them. “While the NDA is coming together and many influential leaders are joining the BJP, the JMM is facing rebellion from senior faces in the region,” said a party leader, citing the example of Sita Soren – the elder daughter-in-law of JMM supremo and Hemant’s father Shibu Soren – who joined the BJP recently.

“Hemant Soren has equated those, who are coming to Ranchi from other districts for their bread and butter, with illegal infiltrators. This has not gone down well. The anti-incumbency factor and the people’s anger over increasing corruption in the ruling coalition have also distanced the people from these parties. All it will impact the election results,” Dubey claimed.