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Journalism of Courage
On a weekday evening, the road to the Dumri market in Giridih district, off Grand Trunk Road, is seeing a crowd slowly build up. The people are here for Jairam Mahato a.k.a Tiger, a 29-year-old rising OBC Kudmi leader and the founding chief of the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JKLM).
At 5 pm, Jairam’s road show starts, with him standing atop a black SUV, his legs held steady by two persons on either side. A young boy flashes a torchlight at the leader, dressed in black track pants, white T-shirt and slippers, a towel across his head. Behind him, the crowd of roughly 3,000, comprising men and women, boys and girls, dances to local songs blaring out of loudspeakers.
Jairam is a Kudmi Mahato, one of three prominent Mahato groups of Jharkhand, the others being Koeri and Teli. The Kudmi Mahatas (Mahatos) comprise around 15% of the population, compared to say the tribals who make up 26-27%. However, sources in the know of SECC data claimed their population in Jharkhand to be around 8%.
However, since he emerged on the state’s political scene earlier this year, Jairam has cut across divides as, simply, “Jharkhand ka ladka (Jharkhand’s own son)”.
One big contributor to his popularity are his videos on social media, where he has a huge following. In the videos, he talks about political awareness, “wealth amassed by political leaders”, the poverty of the people, and how “outsiders get government jobs in Jharkhand”.
In its very first Assembly elections, the JLKM has fielded candidates in 71 of Jharkhand’s 81 constituencies. Jairam is contesting from the Dumri Assembly seat, where he led in the recent Lok Sabha polls, and Bermo, to make a political point as both the Congress and BJP candidates in this seat are natives of Bihar.
Among his biggest supporters are women, and the Dumri rally has many, including schoolgoing girls and college goers. Khunti Devi, a homemaker who has been to several of Jairam’s rallies, says they believe he will bring “change” and “opportunities for the youth of Jharkhand”. Khunti says she hired an auto and travelled 8 km for the rally.
As politicians go, Jairam is as unlike as they get. A Masters in English Literature, he is currently pursuing a Ph.D on the comparative literature of Indian author Mulkraj Anand and Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’O on the theme of ‘exploitation’.
“Soshan” or exploitation remains intrinsic to Jairam’s political message too. In most of his speeches, he talks about “haq (rights)” and how the people of Jharkhand have been deprived of the same. He talks particularly of the Kudmis, “whose lands are being exploited for mining”.
Speaking to The Indian Express on his way to the Baghmara constituency, Jairam says while his childhood was “difficult”, political consciousness came to him only in college. “It is then that we become aware of the helplessness of people like us in Jharkhand.”
One of the first big agitations he led were the language protests of early 2022, floating a Jharkhandi Bhasha Sangharsha Samiti. It was a reaction to a government notification in end 2021 to include Magahi, Bhojpuri and Angika etc as regional languages in district-level selection exams held by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission.
Jairam and others saw the inclusion of Bhojpuri and Magahi as an infringement on the rights of Adivasis and Moolvasis. The success of the protests – both in identifying Jairam as a leader, and in the withdrawal of the notification by the government later – led to the formation of the JLKM in early 2024, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Come general elections, the huge crowds drawn by Jairam in his campaign for the Giridih Lok Sabha seat cemented his rising star. Contesting as an Independent, Jairam got 3.47 lakh votes, finishing 20,000 votes behind the runner-up, the JMM’s Mathura Mahato. The seat was won by the AJSUP, a BJP ally.
With no dent in his popularity and given the different arithmetic for the Assembly polls, the Kudmi vote could prove crucial in at least 32-35 seats now.
While JLKM sources say the party is realistically looking at a tally of seven, the votes it gets could affect the chances of others. Usually, the BJP and AJSU have claimed the support of OBC groups, with the JMM the preferred party in some pockets.
In the Lok Sabha elections, Jairam finished first in two of Giridih’s Assembly segments, Gomia and Dumri. In the Ranchi Lok Sabha seat, Jairam’s candidate finished second in the Silli segment; in the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat, Jairam’s man gave a tough fight in the Ramgarh segment. Given that the winning margin in many Assembly seats remains less than 20,000 votes, the JLKM will matter.
BJP spokesperson Ajay Shah says there is no denying that Jairam is a “young and prospective” leader. “But it will take some time for him to solidify his leadership. His party office-bearers have been resigning.” Shah claims that Jairam would impact the JMM more, while his effect on the BJP will be “negligible”.
A JMM source argues otherwise. Another JMM source says: “The fight is with the BJP, that’s it. Jairam is not a factor.”
Jairam says he is better prepared than the Lok Sabha elections, and knows better now than to depend on oratory alone. “We have invested in planning, cadre management, strategy,” he says. Like the Lok Sabha elections, he claims to have raised money to contest through crowd-funding.
This planning and strategy are evident in the Dumri roadshow. In his wrap-up speech, Jairam addresses the business community, telling them not to fall for his rivals’ misplaced depiction of him. “If I have come into politics, then everyone will get respect and protection,” he says.
Jairam tells The Indian Express that he is aware that the choice between “satta (power)” and “siddhant (principles)” will only get tougher. However, “eventually, issues and work will rise to the top in politics”.
The JKLM’s 50-point poll manifesto focuses on problems of unorganised workers and distress migration. “Palayan ek peeda hai (Distress migration is a pain),” he says, asserting that more than 50,000 workers from outside the state had returned to vote for him in Giridih alone during the Lok Sabha elections.
Nirmal Mahato, who is at the Dumri roadshow carrying a toddler, is among them. An autorickshaw driver in Mumbai, Nirmal, who is in his 30s, says he came earlier this month so that he could vote for Jairam. “I came during the Lok Sabha elections too.”
Ghanshyam Mahato, who has been working as a mason in Maharashtra since 2007, is also in the crowd. “After 24 years, a new Kudmi leader has risen,” he says.
