Tribal-snubbed BJP Set for Jharkhand Plan Overhaul
Jharkhand BJP president Babulal Marandi in Giridih Image credit BJP4Jharkhand
Resignation of Raghubar Das as Odissa Guv Sets Off Buzz
By Amit Kumar
Ranchi, December 25: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to overhaul the Jharkhand unit. The BJP completed the stock-taking exercise on poll rout in Jharkhand.
The BJP thinking heads concluded that the saffron outfit committed cardinal mistake by playing the tribal card. “Resignation of Raghubar Das as Governor of Odisha is a part of the course correction. The BJP leadership is of the belief that the party played wrong script in the Jharkhand Assembly elections,” said a senior BJP functionary.
The BJP national general secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh had held a marathon stock-taking session with the Jharkhand unit leaders in Ranchi soon after the Assembly poll rout of the saffron outfit. “The bottom line of the feedback exercise was that the BJP in place of playing on strength sought to play on the strength of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and fell flat in the elections,” added the BJP functionary.
The BJP could win just one of the total 28 reserved seats in Jharkhand. Champai Soren was the lone winner from the reserved seat.
The BJP had played the tribal card in Jharkhand elections by installing Babulal Maranadi as the face of the party. But sources in the BJP said that Marandi’s leadership set off a chain reaction of dissidence deepening in the party.
“The BJP spent half the energy during the election campaign in appeasing the dissidents in Jharkhand. This means that the leadership of the BJP at the state level was not connected with the party workers,” said another senior BJP functionary.
The Jharkhand BJP unit is abuzz with the rehabilitation of Das in the party ranks. “Das had already been camping in Jamshedpur East Assembly seat to help his daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahu win her maiden election from the constituency. His heart has always been in politics while he had been sent away to Odisha to clear the path of Marandi. But the objective was not achieved and the BJP paid a heavy price,” stated the BJP functionary.
The BJP had made a strong pitch to poach the tribal vote base of the JMM. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan and others amplified the tribal identity in danger narrative with the Bangladeshi illegal immigrants backdrop. But the narrative could not save the BJP from delivering the worst ever poll outcome in Jharkhand.
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