BJP’s Jilted in Jharkhand Jams Saffron Charge in Assembly Polls

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BJP Faces Heat Within with Battles of Satraps

By Manish Anand

New Delhi, October 28: A phase of electioneering lull currently prevails in Jharkhand. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is tending to hurt souls from within ranks in the poll-bound state.

A total of 2.5 crore electorate in Jharkhand will vote for two-phased Assembly elections on November 13 and 20. The poll verdict will come on November 23 for 81-member state Assembly.

“The BJP has a battle within to fight in Jharkhand. The BJP’s twin challenges in Jharkhand consist of nepotism and compulsive embracing turncoats,” said a senior BJP functionary.

Also Read: Tribal votes-to decide Jharkhand assembly poll winner

The BJP’s three satraps in Jharkhand have called shots in the ticket distribution. “Raghubar Das (former Jharkhand chief minister and currently Governor of Odisha), Babulal Marandi (state BJP president), and Arjun Munda (former Union Minister) are three big satraps in Jharkhand for the BJP. There are smaller satraps in zones who also worked pressures to influence ticket distribution,” said another senior BJP functionary.

Arjun Munda’s wife, Meera Munda, is BJP candidate from Potka Assembly seat in Jharkhand. Arjun Munda had lost the Lok Sabha elections this year. The BJP, incidentally, had lost all the five reserved Lok Sabha seats for tribal.

Purnima Das Sahu, daughter-in-law of the Odisha Governor, is the BJP candidate from Jamshedpur East Assembly seat. Five years ago, the BJP rebel and poll veteran Saryu Rai had handed over a crushing defeat to Raghubar Das in the Jamshedpur East Assembly seat.

That defeat almost finished the political career of Das. After serving revenge on Das, Rai has now gone back to his traditional Jamshedpur West Assembly seat. Yet, Das, said the BJP insiders, is a factor in the Jharkhand Assembly elections with his “hand seen in ticket distribution for the candidates”.

Also Read: BJP eying Chhattisgarh feat faces uphill task in Jharkhand

“The BJP appointed Ravindra Rai working president of the party in the midst of the electioneering. This was necessitated to appease him, for the former Lok Sabha MP was on the verge of turning a rebel,” added the BJP functionary.

The BJP, per local reports, has given tickets to 13 turncoats in the Assembly elections. The BJP’s tested election management script involves foisting turncoats to the centre stage to gain extra edge. This worked in the BJP’s favour in Haryana and Jammu recently in the Assembly elections.

“What worked in Jammu and Haryana may not work in Jharkhand. The full energy of the BJP is now employed to knock the doors of the angry cadre. They are not showing zeal for electioneering while being jilted for the BJP’s excessive care for nepotism and turncoats,” said the BJP functionary.

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About The Author

Manish Anand

Manish Anand is a senior journalist with more than two decades of hardcore reporting on beats such as Prime Minister’s Office, Parliament, BJP, Congress, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, and scores of Union Ministries.

His past has been with The New Indian Express, The Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle, and The Statesman.

For about 15 years, Manish was also a regular commentator and host for talks on AIR on foreign affairs.

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