JMM, Congress nail Jharkhand social configuration in diverse landscape

Soon after the Election Commission announced the Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly polls on October 15, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working president and chief minister Hemant Soren and his legislator wife Kalpana Soren met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi.
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At that meeting, Hemant Soren discussed the poll strategy and seat-sharing formula for the INDIA bloc, batting for the inclusion of the CPI-ML (Liberation) in the coalition to make the contest bipolar in the two-phased assembly elections.
“Our leadership agreed to the plan and decided that Hemant will have (the) final word in campaign and seat sharing. It was also decided that in some seats there would be friendly contests,” a Congress leader aware of the matter said.
To accommodate three seats to the CPI-ML (Liberation), the Congress agreed to give away two seats and be in a friendly fight in one seat. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) also agreed to part with one seat and be in a friendly fight in another.
The JMM contested 43 seats, same as it did in the 2019 polls, while the Congress and the RJD fielded their candidates in 30 and seven constituencies, respectively, both accepting one seat less than what they contested five years ago.
“Unlike Maharashtra, there was no wrangling over seat sharing in Jharkhand and it was finalised before the nomination process started,” a senior JMM leader said.
After the JMM-led INDIA bloc registered an emphatic victory in the assembly polls on Saturday, winning 56 of the state’s 81 seats, Soren told reporters in Ranchi that the alliance had set specific target and many candidates were decided before hand to start the campaign early. “All alliance partners worked in perfect coordination,” he added.
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The impact of the “perfect coordination” was visible in poll results, as the JMM won 34 seats, four more than it won in 2019, the Congress won 16, same as it did five years ago, the RJD won four seats, three more than in the last assembly polls and the CPI-ML won two seats.
Political observers maintained that each constituent of the alliance brought something different to the table. The JMM brought in the support of tribals and OBC voters, the Congress had strong backing among the Muslim community, the RJD brought the support of the OBC Yadav and migrants from Bihar settled in North Chotanagpur Division while the CPI-ML has strong backing among workers in the state’s coal belt.
“The JMM-Congress alliance performed well in consolidating their vote bank including Adivasis, Muslims, Mahtos and Yadavs,” political analyst Sudhir Pal said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Pal stressed, failed to strike a chord with the voters as it was dependent too much on leaders from outside the state instead of locals. “The BJP seems to have failed to take full advantage of tribal leaders like Champai Soren and Sita Soren who had left the JMM and joined the saffron camp,” Pal added.
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The JMM-Congress alliance pegged its campaign on the government’s welfare schemes such as the Maiya Samman Yojana while pitching a narrative of Adivasi asmita (tribal pride). The INDIA bloc was able to project that arrest of Hemant Soren by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged land case earlier this year was the BJP’s attack on tribal pride, prompting high turnout of tribal voters.
On ground, all alliance leaders were speaking in one voice and did not speak against each other. In fact, Hemant and Kalpana Soren campaigned for their alliance partners and same was the case with local Congress and RJD leaders.
“Specific duties were given to leaders of each alliance partner in each assembly constituency to ensure smooth transfer of votes,” a senior JMM leader said.
Experts also said the Congress and the JMM have learnt a big lesson from the past as their tally increased when they fought in an alliance. In 2014, the JMM bagged 19 seats but its tally shot up to 30 in 2019. Similarly, the Congress’s tally increased from six seats in 2014 to 16 in 2019. The JMM and Congress contested separately in the 2014 assembly polls.
“The JMM, RJD and Congress put up a united show during the campaign. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav could be seen campaigning for Congress candidate Purnima Niraj Singh in Jharia. When it came to the BJP, they not only failed to project a face of the chief minister but also failed to highlight big names such as Champai Soren outside his own assembly,” Pal added.