WOOING THE TRIBAL HEART

THE BJP WILL HAVE TO WORK HARD TO DISLODGE THE JMM'S NATURAL ADVANTAGE AMONG THE TRIBALS IN THE STATE AND RELY ON THE DEVELOPMENT NARRATIVE TO WREST THE STATE BACK FROM ITS RIVALS

- AMITABH SRIVASTAVA

ON October 19, as Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren addressed the media in capital Ranchi, he shared a key detail―that his party, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and the Congress will be contesting 70 of the state's 81 assembly seats, and ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties the remaining 11. But asked about the candidates, the CM responded with a mere "these things can't be disclosed yet".

In contrast, the NDA betrayed no such hesitation in its declaration of seatsharing or candidates. The BJP will contest 68 seats, the Sudesh Mahto-led All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) Party 10, the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) two, and Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party or LJP (Ram Vilas) one. The BJP has already released its first list of 66 candidates.

Poised to vote in two phases on November 13 and 20, with results to be announced three days later, this will be Jharkhand's fifth assembly election in its 24-year history, a period in which it has seen seven individuals occupy the chief minister's chair on 13 separate occasions, and three bouts of President's rule. Former BJP CM Raghubar Das is the only one to have lasted a full term beginning 2014; the 2005 assembly saw three CMs in five years. No party has been re-elected for a second consecutive term.

That jinx will no doubt weigh heavy on Hemant Soren's mind as he sets out to seek re-election. Despite the alliance winning a majority in the state in 2019, it has been a tumultuous five years in power. Soren has had to move his MLAs to Chhattisgarh twice to prevent alleged poaching attempts. Then, in 2022, alliance partner Congress had to suspend three MLAs after they were found with large sums of cash in West Bengal. Finally, Soren, like the CMs of other non-BJPruled states, found central investigative agencies coming after him as well. This saw him spend five months in jail in a case of forged documents for 8.86 acres of land in the Badgai area of Ranchi.