Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren (centre) with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav (left) during a public meeting ahead of the state Assembly elections, in Godda district of Jharkhand.
Credit: PTI Photo
Can Hemant Soren do what his father Shibu Soren or any other chief minister in Jharkhand couldn’t since the state was carved out of Bihar in 2000 – retain power for a consecutive second term at the helm of the state government?
Already out of the shadows of his father, a prominent face of protest demanding statehood for Jharkhand, Hemant now wants to cement his prominence in the tribal state and believes he would do so this time.
He is also aiming at the former CM and BJP leader Raghubar Das's record of completing five years in power at a stretch, a feat no one else has managed in Jharkhand in the past 24 years.
But the road ahead for Hemant’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and its allies – Congress, RJD, and CPI(ML)L – is not rosy, as the BJP has already unleashed high-decibel rhetoric on illegal immigration of Bangladeshis into tribal areas in a bid to win back the trust of the community that accounts for form 28 per cent of the population.
Negotiations for seats among the I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s partners ragged on. The stage was set for them to do well in the assembly polls as the JMM-led coalition had improved its tally in Lok Sabha elections with the BJP losing five tribal seats. In the 2019 Assembly polls, the BJP had won just two out of 28 tribal seats.
JMM managed to bring Congress on the table first, as the latter’s electoral debacle in Haryana seriously crippled its negotiating skills. Congress, which contested for 31 seats last time and was demanding at least 33 this time, finally settled for 30.
However, RJD played hardball for days demanding at least 12, but finally settled for six, one less than last time. CPI(ML)L managed to get three though the Left party is having a friendly fight with the JMM in one seat. Congress and RJD are also squaring against each other in two seats. Angered by exclusion, CPI(M) and CPI have fielded candidates in around 25 seats.
Though it faces ally troubles, anti-incumbency, and corruption allegations, the JMM-led alliance hopes to ride on the government’s social welfare programmes and the “targeting” of Hemant and other leaders, who are on the opposite side of the BJP.
Invoking tribal pride, it is attempting to turn the tide on the BJP by highlighting how Hemant was incarcerated for five months earlier this year. It is also highlighting schemes like ‘Maiyya Samman Yojana’, which provides Rs 1,000 per month to women aged between 18 and 50 years from August.
The JMM and its allies promised that it would be hiked to Rs 2,500 from December. They are using the scheme to counter the BJP’s ‘Roti, Beti and Maati’ campaign. Hemant’s wife Kalpana, who entered politics after his arrest, is leading the party’s outreach to women and she is attracting good crowds.
The JMM-led government already waived unpaid power bills to the tune of Rs 3,584 crore and farm loans to the tune of Rs 400.66 crore. Hemant also promised 200 units of free power to the poor.
Will this be enough? Allies feel Hemant’s victim card may not work much and they need to focus on deliverables. It is to be seen how the exit of Champai Soren, who stood in for Hemant when he went to jail, and his joining the BJP impacted the JMM’s hold on the tribals.
BJP is hoping to make an inroad into the Kolhan region, where it did not win any of the 14 seats and it hopes Champai’s hold will swing it the saffron way. JMM and its allies would be working hard to retain the Kolhan region as well as Santhal Pargana where they won 13 out of 18 seats last time.
What Hemant and allies are looking at is a clear and decisive majority, as they were kept on their toes by the BJP, which was wooing MLAs from the opposite side. For this, Congress will have to improve its strike rate and not repeat its performance in Bihar, where it lost too many seats.
Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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