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The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren is looking to capitalise on the domicile policy Bill and the OBC reservation Bill for the forthcoming bypoll in Jharkhand’s Dumri.
The bypoll, which is scheduled for September 5, was necessitated due to the death of JMM leader and former education minister Jagrnath Mahato earlier this year. His wife Bebi Devi is now contesting the bypoll as the JMM’s candidate backed by the party-led ruling coalition. She is pitted against the All Jharkhand Student Union Party (AJSUP)’s Yasodha Devi, who is the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s joint candidate.
The JMM is hinging its hopes on the base Mahato cultivated in the area over a decade-and-a-half.
Mahato was a key aide of JMM founder Binod Bihari Mahato and participated in the long agitation for separate state of Jharkhand. He forayed into electoral politics in 2005 and won all the four Assembly elections since, contesting from Dumri. His followers dubbed him as “Tiger”.
A ruling coalition leader said: “Tiger dada ke maut par sympathy to milegi Bebi Devi ko (There will be a wave of sympathy for Devi after the death of “Tiger” Jagarnath Mahato). He was a messiah in his constituency. The OBC community just loves him.”
A popular leader, Mahato had secured high victory margins. In the last elections in 2019, Mahato polled 71,000 votes and defeated Yasodha Devi by a margin of more than 34,000 votes.
The JMM is also looking to capitalise on the domicile and OBC reservation Bills.
The domicile Bill or the ‘Jharkhand Definition of Local Persons and for Extending the Consequential, Social, Cultural and Other Benefits to Such Local Persons Bill, 2022’, defines a Jharkhand local based on 1932 land records. Amid much fanfare, it was passed in a special session last November, with the provision that it would come into force only after the Centre carries out amendments to include it in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution, which contains a list of central and state laws that cannot be challenged in courts. After much back and forth, the then Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais returned the domicile Bill in February this year without giving his assent.
The OBC reservation Bill, the Jharkhand Reservation of Vacancies in Posts and Services (Amendment) Bill, 2022, had sought to increase the OBC quota from 14% to 27%, ST quota from 26% to 28%, and reservation for SC from 10% to 12%. Along with this, the 10% EWS quota (existing) would have taken total reservation in state government jobs to 77%. This too was returned by the current Governor C P Radhakrishnan.
“Both the Bills are yet to be notified as Acts, but we will make a pitch to the electorate. There is a significant OBC population here which is a core support base of Jagarnath Mahato. We will reach out to them,” a JMM source said.
Meanwhile, the AJSUP and BJP are hoping that their “combined strength” can take on the “sympathy factor” for Baby Devi.
In 2019, the two coalition parties were divided over a choice of candidate and contested the election in Dumri separately. The BJP’s Pradeep Kumar Sahu had polled a little more than 36,000 votes on his own.
A BJP leader said: “In 2019, both AJSUP and BJP together could have easily defeated Mahato. Now there is only one candidate under NDA — and we are hoping to make significant gains.”
On the domicile Bill, AJSUP general secretary Labodar Mahato said at a recent press conference that his party too had also demanded 1932 as the cut off date for the definition of a local in Jharkhand.
