In Jharkhand, the only non-BJP state now in the East, party steadies its ship
New state chief and a new team have been lining up issues and messaging, say Bengal results being seen “as an indicator of factors that can shape results in the region”
Leader of Opposition in Jharkhand Assembly Babulal Marandi (left) and Chief Minister Hemant Soren (right). (Photos: X/@yourBabulal and @HemantSorenJMM) After the BJP’s win in West Bengal on Monday, the saffron footprint extends across the East, barring a small patch – Jharkhand. But while elections to this state, one of the handful now left in the Opposition kitty, are due only in 2029, the Jharkhand BJP has a new spring in its steps – emboldened by results in neighbouring Bihar and West Bengal, and organisational changes.
The BJP was the first party to form the government when Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000. In the 2024 Assembly elections, while the BJP lost power to the JMM and allies, including the Congress and RJD, it was the single-largest party by far in vote share, at about 33%. The JMM and Congress together got around 39% of the votes.
The BJP reset began in January this year, with the appointment of Rajya Sabha MP Aditya Sahu as the party’s Jharkhand president after the end of Babulal Marandi’s term. A booth-level worker who has made his way to the top, Sahu’s rise was a motivational story for the ranks as well as a message that the BJP wanted a leadership rooted in the ground.
In March, Sahu announced a new team, bringing in Amar Kumar Bauri as general secretary along with a wider set of office-bearers, with the goal of streamlining and fixing responsibilities.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Sahu said the BJP will target the JMM-led government over law and order, crimes against women, and “governance failures”. There is a growing anger on the ground, particularly among women and youth, and the BJP was mobilising its workers village to village and planning protests on issues like water and electricity, he said.
Bauri said the BJP was also trying to plug the gaps that have in the past hampered its efforts to take its message to the grassroots. “Our focus now is on improving the communication between the leadership and workers. This was put into motion immediately after the new state president’s appointment,” he said.
Training of workers is on at different levels, Bauri said, with emphasis on the unique challenges of Jharkhand politics, including its caste and social dynamics.
Like the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, the JMM has a strong regional base in Jharkhand, with a narrative centred around identity and regional concerns.
K K Gupta, a member of the BJP state executive in Ranchi, said putting the organisation into gear won’t be difficult for the party in the state as it has an embedded structure in Jharkhand.
Apart from working out the organisation and its poll issues, the BJP is also trying to expand its social outreach in the state. Rafiya Naaz, a spokesperson who joined the party in 2021, says her entry and appointment reflect a shift in the BJP. The fact that she belongs to a minority community has not come in the way of her finding space and a platform, and has opened the doors for other women and other Muslims in the BJP, Naaz said.
“I have seen women from minority groups engaging with the BJP. The party has no hate towards minorities,” she said, adding that the party is welcoming to women across its ranks.
With the big prize of Bengal in the BJP kitty, the Jharkhand unit is definitely watching closely, Bauri said. “The outcome is being watched less as a template and more as an indicator of how these factors can shape results in the eastern region.”
In their messages after the Bengal results, the BJP’s Leader of Opposition Babulal Marandi and Sahu called the performance in the state, along with victories in Assam and Puducherry, historic, attributing it to record-breaking voter turnouts, “public trust” and organisational efforts.
Bauri said the people of Bengal had chosen nationalism, development and the vision of a developed India without shortcuts, in voting for the BJP. “We are confident that similar political change would be seen in Jharkhand by 2029, and signs of this shift are already visible. Now only Jharkhand is left (in the East).”
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