BJP, eying Chhattisgarh feat, faces uphill task in Jharkhand
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Modi spotlights BJP poll plank of tribal identity in danger in Jharkhand
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 3: Prime Minister Narendra Modi lent his weight to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) poll narrative in Jharkhand of infiltrators threatening identity of locals. The BJP is building the poll narrative of Bangladeshi infiltrators usurping “land, women, and resources” in Jharkhand.
The prime minister concerns on the population of the Hindus coming down in Jharkhand. He particularly expressed concerns on declining population of tribal in Jharkhand.
The Election Commission (EC) is likely to announce poll dates for Assembly elections in Jharkhand in the next few days. The prime minister unveiled and laid foundation stones for projects worth over ₹83,000 crores in Jharkhand.
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The BJP’s sharp focus on tribal vote base is seen as a determined effort of saffron outfit to stop the incumbent chief minister of Jharkhand, Hemant Soren, from creating a history. No government in Jharkhand has ever been repeated since the formation of the state.
“While Hemant Soren was in jail, the BJP had no chance at all of even giving a contest to the ruling alliance led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). The tribal vote base had sharply turned hostile to the BJP,” said a senior Ranchi-based political observer.
He stated that Hemant Soren’s release from the jail somewhat helped the BJP to comeback in the contest for the Assembly elections. “The ruling alliance led by the JMM has a clear edge in Jharkhand. The BJP is hoping to repeat the unexpected win of Chhattisgarh in Jharkhand,” said a Ranchi-based editor of a daily.
The BJP had wrested back power in Chhattisgarh by carpet-bombing election rallies of central leaders as well as chief ministers of the party-ruled states. “The BJP is indeed repeating the Chhattisgarh model. Both the states are known for tribal identities. The BJP is hopeful that the party may pull out an unexpected win in Jharkhand also,” added the senior journalist.
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But the past advantage of the BJP in exploiting the division in the tribal vote base has now vanished. “The BJP in the past gained from the divide in the tribal vote base on Sarna and Christian fragmentation. This divide was bridged during the tenure of Raghubar Das, the former chief minister of Jharkhand,” said another Ranchi-based political observer.
The BJP had lost all the five tribal reserved parliamentary constituencies in the Lok Sabha elections. The consolidation of the tribal vote base in favour of the JMM-led alliance and division in the other backward castes (OBCs) may doom prospects of the BJP in the Assembly elections.
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