Sweeping 56 out of the 81 seats, Soren led the INDIA alliance to a historical victory in Jharkhand, riding on the popularity of his better half Kalpana Soren and welfare schemes like Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana.Hemant Soren, who spearheaded the election campaigns months after being released on bail in a case where he faced corruption charges won from the Barhait seat by a margin of 39,791 votes, defeating BJP’s Gamliyel Hembrom. “I express my gratitude to the people for this stupendous performance… We have passed the exam of democracy in Jharkhand; we will finalise our strategy after the election results,” Soren said addressing a press conference in Ranchi.AICC general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir said ‘Soren is the CM of Jharkhand and will continue to remain so.’ Later in a video message, Soren said, “Let’s resolve to remove Jharkhand’s ‘backward’ tag and try to make it developed. We solicit peoples’ suggestions for improving industry, education and agriculture.” He also asserted that the coalition will transform the state into a ‘golden Jharkhand’ with ‘Abua Raj’ (self-governance)’.Welfare and sympathy The financial assistance of Rs 1000 under Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana announced by the JMM-led ruling alliance worked in favour of the ruling party and helped in mobilizing the women voters in Jharkhand. The impact of this scheme could be gauged by the fact that women voters outnumbered men in 68 of the 81 Assembly constituencies. “Rs 1000 is a big amount for the women living in rural who are homemakers and are financially dependant on their husbands. With such an amount being credited directly to their bank accounts regularly for the past four months, they felt empowered and enthusiastically voted in favour of the INDIA bloc,” according to political analyst and professor VP Sharan. Another important factor behind the landslide victory, said Sharan, is the sympathy for Hemant Soren and his family as people believed he was targetted by the BJP-ruled Central government. Kalpana Soren’s entry in active politics while her husband was lodged in jail, also proved to be fruitful as women identified themselves with her easily, he said. “The INDIA bloc parties also promoted Kalpana Soren which further helped her in establishing herself as an independent political identify, both locally and on the national level,” Sharan noted. “Taking advantage of this, she campaigned passionately across Jharkhand focussing on the Mukhyamantri Maiyan Samman Yojana,” he added. Sudhir Pal, state head of ADR-National Election Watch also believes that the welfare schemes centred on women benefitted the INDIA alliance. “There are nearly 2 lakh Self Help Groups (SHG) in Jharkhand comprising more than 25 lakh women voters due to which it becomes easier for the political parties to get their votes in bulk if they succeed in mobilizing them in their favour,” he said. What went wrong for BJP?The BJP-led NDA alliance’s election campaigns were centred around claims of the ruling party facilitating “infiltration from Bangladesh” which could change the demography of the state.Days before the second phase of polling in the state, Jharkhand BJP came under fire for its campaigning video that showed members of Muslim community forcibly entering the house of a JMM leader and residing there. The caption with the video read, “Look carefully at how big a mistake a wrong vote can become. So don’t make the same mistake this time as in 2019. Choose the right thing, choose BJP.”Top BJP leaders such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma were part of aggressive campaigns in the state, but the NDA failed in several area including projecting a CM candidate, as its campaigns mainly focused on “inflatration” and “corruption” of the Hemant Soren regime.Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP co-incharge for the assembly elections in Jharkhand, who had spearheaded most of the anti-minority hate campaigns in the state during the election, on Saturday responded to the results saying the party’s loss was deeply painful for him.”The loss in Jharkhand is deeply painful for me personally, even though we secured victory in all five by-elections in Assam. I have witnessed the unwavering dedication and relentless efforts of our Karyakartas in Jharkhand, who gave their all in this election,” he said in a post on X.About 200 rallies were addressed by BJP leaders including about two dozen by Shah and PM Modi who also held mega road shows including one in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi drawing huge crowds.However, these campaigns went in vain and the saffron camp suffered a debacle leaving the party’s rank and file wondering what had gone wrong.Despite the fact that BJP deployed master strategists like Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and tried to plug all the loopholes that had led to the ouster of the Raghubar Das government in 2019, it failed to regain the trust of the people, particularly tribals in Jharkhand.A source in the state BJP claimed that failing to project a tribal CM’s face in the polls cost it dearly.Another leader claimed the entire show was run by ‘two leaders from outside’ and the state BJP gave tickets to leaders who came from other parties, ignoring its own.BJP’s sitting legislator Kedar Hazra along with former minister Louis Marandi joined JMM accusing dejection by party leaders just ahead of the polls.According to political analyst and veteran journalist DP Sharan, the hate campaign against minorities backfired for BJP and helped the INDIA bloc in uniting these votes. The saffron brigade miserably failed to endear itself with the voters with its ‘roti-mati-beti’ slogan, implying that the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration did not resonate with the voters across the State.Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) too played a spoilsport seizing a sizeable chunk of votes harming BJP and AJSU Party like in Chandankiyari where Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Amar Kumar Bauri not only lost to Umakant Rajak of JMM but could occupy only third spot.BJP contested 68 seats while its ally AJSU Party in 10 and JDU (2) and LJP (Ram Vilas) one.(With inputs from PTI, Online Desk)
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