The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a two-pronged strategy of reaching out to tribal communities by raising issues of local relevance and retaining support from urban voters by highlighting the shortcomings of the government in Jharkhand, which is due to hold elections to its 81-seat assembly later this year.
Senior BJP leaders said the Opposition in the eastern state will focus their campaign on the corruption allegations against Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who was released on June 28, six months after being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.
“There will be several issues that will drive the election campaign in the state, but the focus will be on the state government’s poor governance record and Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s corruption,” the senior leader said, requesting anonymity.
He added that the BJP will also focus on 28 of the 91 constituencies reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs). As per the 2011 census, 34.6 percent of the state’s voters belong to the Scheduled Tribe community, which is key to deciding the election outcome.
The BJP’s performance in both the 2019 state assembly elections and this year’s Lok Sabha elections has been largely attributed to apathy from tribal communities.
The BJP suffered defeat in the 2019 state assembly elections, dropping its seats in the 81-seat assembly from 37 to 25. Soren’s JMM won 30 seats and formed the government with the support of the Indian National Congress, which won 16 seats, and the Reliant Rajya Sabha Party (RJD), which won one seat.
In this year’s Lok Sabha elections, the party’s tally of seats fell to eight from 11 in 2019. The Jharkhand Meddling Congress (JMM) won three seats, the Indian National Congress two and the AJSU one.
Ahead of the state assembly elections due later this year, there are fears of loss of support from tribal communities after the opposition parties waged a relentless campaign to characterise the BJP as anti-Scheduled Caste (SC) and anti-Scheduled Caste and anti-caste-based reservation force, the official said.
“Of the 47 seats (across 16 states) reserved for STs, the BJP won 25 (in the Lok Sabha elections), which is less than 2019 when the party won 31 seats. Here in Jharkhand, the defeat was even worse as the party could not win even one of the five seats. This is because of the opposition’s false narrative that the BJP will abolish reservations,” the official said.
In recent meetings with Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been appointed Jharkhand’s Chief Election Officer, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state leaders stressed the need to rethink the party’s support to tribal communities, Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and other caste groups in urban constituencies.
“Some leaders in the party feel that the JMM’s allegation that the Union government has victimised Soren, a tribal chief minister, is resonating with the local community. The issue that ‘tribal pride’ is being hurt by his arrest has gained momentum despite Soren’s poor governance record. Hence, there is an urgent need to expose his shortcomings, including failure to create employment opportunities and address people’s concerns,” said a second senior leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
To counter the JMM’s allegation that Soren is a victim of political vendetta, the BJP highlighted the issues faced by the ST community, especially women and youth.
“Issues like covert land acquisition in tribal areas and illegal settlement of Bangladeshis are a major concern in the Santal Pargana region,” the second senior official said.
BJP leaders are heartened by a recent order by the Jharkhand High Court directing the state government to identify infiltrators from Bangladesh and prepare an action plan to deport them.
To maintain their support in urban areas, BJP leaders have been urging the federal government to announce state-specific schemes and incentives for food security, higher remuneration for crops, and increased spending on health, housing and other amenities, like those announced in Chhattisgarh when the BJP ousted the Congress government from power in state elections last year.
“There is anger on the ground because the prime minister promised 500,000 government jobs but that has not happened. There have been no development or economic packages for the youth…” the second official said.
Another key issue that will have to be resolved in the coming weeks is that of strengthening alliances, with some party leaders feeling that a tie-up with the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) ahead of the elections would benefit the party.
The BJP and AJSU have had an on-off alliance, with the BJP winning 37 seats and the AJSU winning five in 2014.
The state BJP is also aware that leadership issues have emerged and will dominate the election campaign, the second senior leader said.
The 2019 defeat was largely blamed on a lack of tribal representation as then Chief Minister Raghubar Das was not seen as a state-wide leader. With the appointment of tribal leader Babulal Marandi as state BJP chief, the party hopes it can dispel accusations of a lack of tribal representation in the upper echelons.
