JHARKHAND: DAS HAS CAPITAL
With the opposition in disarray, Chief Minister Raghubar Das is upbeat about the BJP’s chances in the assembly election
Having spearheaded the BJPled NDA’s 12/14 seats dominance in the 2019 Lok Sabha election in Jharkhand, Chief Minister Raghubar Das believes he has set the tone for the coming assembly election. The “extremely positive feedback” during his statewide Johar Jan Ashirwad Yatra is also cause for cheer, he claims. His confidence aside, it’s still a high-stakes game. He is not just the first non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand— over 26 per cent of the population is tribal—but also the first to complete a full term.
The challenges are many, “complacency being the biggest one”, says a senior BJP leader. In 2014 too, the BJP had won 12 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand, but just about scraped through in the assembly election months later (37 of 81 seats).
The good news for Das is that Jharkhand has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for the BJP—it has been the single largest party in all three assembly polls held since the state came into being in 2000. Also, Das does not face a leadership battle, with Arjun Munda—who could have emerged as a challenger—being ‘rehabilitated’ as a Union minister.
The biggest plus is the disarray in the opposition camp. The Congress hopes to tie up with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). But barring the JMM which has completed a badlav (change) yatra, none of the others seems to be in any state of readiness for the election in December. State Congress president Ajoy Kumar quit the party to join the Aam Aadmi Party in August. The general election rout has affected the others too. JMM president Shibu Soren had lost from Dumka, once his fortress, while JVM chief Babulal Marandi lost by a massive 455,000 votes from Koderma, again a party stronghold.
A major strategy of the opposition will be to highlight how, unlike them, the BJP is led by Das, who is a nontribal. This is significant, as more than a third of the assembly seats (28) are reserved for STs. The BJP will take heart from the fact that they won 11 of these seats in 2014. The party also won 51 per cent of the votes in the general election. Das will be hoping for a repeat in December. ■