Tribal Votes To Decide Jharkhand Assembly Poll Winner
Image credit X.com @BJP4Jharkhand
BJP Aims To Make Inroads IN JMM Tribal Vote Base In Jharkhand
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 15: The Election Commission on Tuesday announced two-phased Assembly elections for Jharkhand. The Jharkhand verdict will come on November 23 after polling on November 13 and 20.
A total of 2.5 crore electorate will cast their votes to elect 81 legislators for the Jharkhand Assembly. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000. The state has mostly seen spells of political instability.
Two-phased elections signalled growing confidence of the security forces to tame the Maoists. Jharkhand has several of the districts affected by the Left Wing Extremism (LWE). But there has been no major Maoist violence in Jharkhand for several months.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Central Election Committee (CEC) went into huddle within two hours of the announcement of the poll schedules for Jharkhand. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is attending the BJP CEC meeting. The saffron outfit will clear names of candidates for the Jharkhand polls.
The incumbent Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is up against odds. The state generally votes out an incumbent government. But Hemant Soren-headed JMM is upbeat to maintain stronghold on the tribal vote base.
The JMM had won 26 of the 28 reserved Assembly seats for tribal in Jharkhand in the 2019 Assembly polls. The JMM-led Opposition bloc, the Indian National Developmental and Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), had won all the five reserved Lok Sabha seats this year.
The BJP vote share ranges between 31 to 35 per cent in Jharkhand. The JMM has about 25 per cent vote base. The alliance partners of the BJP and the JMM hold the trump cards for both the claimants for power in Jharkhand.
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The Congress had won a total of 16 Assembly seats in the 2019 state elections. The JMM and Congress will soon finalize seat adjustment pacts. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is also a small constituent of the JMM-led alliance.
The BJP will stick to party’s ties with the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU). The Janata Dal (United) and the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP) are also hopeful of the BJP accommodating them symbolically in Jharkhand elections.
The BJP aware of the tribal votes holding the ace in Jharkhand has been amplifying the Bangladeshi immigrants’ issue on campaign trails. Hemant Soren’s wife, Kalpana Soren, has led a state-wide mobilisation of the tribal vote base in favour of the JMM.
A day ahead of the poll date announcement, the Jharkhand Cabinet in its meeting presided over by Hemant Soren approved a proposal to transfer ₹2500 to women in the state.
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