J’khand polls

terms each.

Most of the 81 seats of Jharkhand assembly are likely to see a multicornered contest between the Bjp-led alliance, the front of the Congress-jharkhand Mukti Morcha-rashtriya Janata Dal and others. The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha of former chief minister Babulal Marandi, who was part of the opposition alliance in the Lok Sabha election, is likely to field candidates in all seats.

The BJP won 37 seats in the 2014 assembly election and its partner, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), five. The

BJP, however, secured a majority when six MLAS of Marandi’s outfit shifted their loyalties. The BJP has 43 MLAS in the current House, two more than the half way mark of 41.

The BJP polled 31.8% votes in the 2014 assembly election, but its tally increased to 51.6% in the parliamentary election.

The BJP-AJSU alliance won 12 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The BJP expects to win the state again on the strength of a slew of welfare programmes that were rolled out in the past five years, and also because the Opposition remains divided.

“We delivered a clean government,” chief minister Raghubar Das said. “A double-engine government (same party at the Centre and in the state) is needed. We will win.”

Das will remain the BJP’S chief ministerial candidate in this election.

The BJP expects that this will consolidate the non-adivasi (non-tribal) vote in the state, analysts said.

“Raghubar Das himself is an outsider. How will he understand the feelings of the people? In this poll, people will throw him [back] to Chhattisgarh, where he belongs,” JMM executive president Hemant Soren said.