The BJP’s campaign seemed to rely excessively on an attempt to deploy the “Assam model” in Jharkhand.
Nov 25, 2024 10:12 IST First published on: Nov 25, 2024 at 10:12 IST
Even as the BJP has achieved a historic mandate in Maharashtra, it has received a sobering message in Jharkhand. In fact, the lessons from the INDIA bloc’s victory there, led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), are not for the BJP alone.
The JMM’s ally, Congress, would also do well to take a leaf out of Soren’s playbook on how to counter the BJP’s challenge with a rooted welfarism, while broadening the party’s social base.
Beating back anti-incumbency, the JMM has improved its tally from 2019 by a skilful balancing of identity appeals with a widening of the welfare net. Unlike the MVA in Maharashtra, the JMM, as the incumbent, could set the campaign’s tone, focusing on several schemes that have provided tangible benefits to the people. The Maiya Samman Yojana that offered Rs 1,000 per month to underprivileged women, the waiver of power dues for 40 lakh families and universal pensions for 40 lakh individuals appear to have resonated with voters beyond the JMM’s traditional base. Hemant Soren’s projection of himself and of the JMM as the guardian of tribal rights was also seen to have a ring of authenticity. In this, he built on the role of his father, Shibu Soren, in the creation of Jharkhand.
On the other side, the BJP could not assuage insecurities and fears that it would dilute rights to land and resources or that it would threaten or fail to safeguard Adivasi identity. Given Hemant Soren’s arrest by central agencies earlier this year on money laundering allegations, this victory is both a personal vindication for him and a political triumph.
The BJP’s campaign seemed to rely excessively on an attempt to deploy the “Assam model” in Jharkhand. The in-your-face attempts at communal polarisation, the dog whistles of “Bangladeshi infiltrators” taking away tribal land, echoed Himanta Biswa Sarma’s rhetoric in his own state — the Assam CM was given charge of the BJP’s campaign in Jharkhand. The Election Commission had to order the party to take down a campaign advertisement because of its brazen fear-mongering.
Unlike in Maharashtra, where BJP slogans like “batenge toh katenge” only seemed to point to the lack of a countervailing narrative from the opponent, Soren and the JMM had their own story to tell. In a time of BJP dominance, for parties that seek to challenge it, it is necessary to have an agenda of their own.
