As Jharkhand prepares for assembly polls, the two main parties--JMM and the BJP--are undertaking yatras across the state even before the election commission announces the polls schedule.
While the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is undertaking Maiya Samman Yatra for women, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched Parivartan Yatra with a message of regime change.
The election commission team was in Jharkhand on Monday to review the poll preparations where the ruling JMM insisted that polling day be kept after November 15, when the major festivals would be over. The main parties are taking advantage of time before the poll announcement for intensive voter outreach.
BJP president J.P. Nadda flagged a parivartan yatra from tribal-dominated Khunti, which has been a BJP stronghold. The Khunti assembly seat has been held by BJP’s Nilkanth Singh Munda since the formation of the state in 2000. During the Lok Sabha polls, then Tribal Affairs Minister and the BJP candidate Arjun Munda lost the parliamentary seat by over 1.5 lakh votes.
Nadda launched a scathing attack on the ruling JMM and its alliance partner, the Congress, accusing them of corruption and over-rolling the tribal interests for vote bank politics. Nadda charged that the tribal population was dwindling in certain areas due to influx of outsiders.
Nadda listed the work done by the Modi government for the people and tribals in particular. The BJP is relying on tribal consolidation in the state. The entry of former CM Champai Soren is expected to help the party helmed by former CM and its tribal face Babulal Marandi.
The BJP and the RSS have been celebrating the Tribal icons to bring the community to its fold. The nomination of Droupadi Murmu, who comes from a tribal Santhal community, as President was a step in that direction.
The JMM also kickstarted its Maiya Samman Yatra on the same day to woo the women voters. This yatra is helmed by women leaders including state minister Baby Devi and MLA Kalpana Soren, wife of CM Hemant Soren. The idea behind the yatra is to engage with the women population which forms nearly 50 per cent of the electorate. These women are also beneficiaries of the state government scheme, Maiya Samman Yojna, where Rs 1,000 is given to women every month. The JMM is talking about tribal identity and accuses the BJP-led NDA government of putting the CM in jail for five months as he refused to toe their line.
In the just concluded Lok Sabha polls, the NDA had won nine seats of which eight were won by the BJP. The JMM had won five and Congress one. In 2019, the NDA had won all the 12 out of the 14 seats in Jharkhand. During the assembly polls, the BJP had won 26 seats, while JMM had won 30 and Congress 16 seats. Babulal Marandi had contested the state elections separately before returning to the BJP. The BJP had experimented with installing a non-Tribal CM, Raghubar Das in 2014. However, this time it is betting on Tribal as CM.