Despite Maharashtra debacle, INDIA bloc leaders put up a united front at Hemant Soren's swearing-in

The swearing-in ceremony of Hemant Soren as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand turned out to be a show of strength by the INDIA bloc as its senior leaders turned up in Ranchi. Soren’s convincing victory in the tribal state has come as a booster for the Opposition bloc in the wake of the humiliating loss in Maharashtra.

Jharkhand may not be politically important as Maharashtra but its results show that effective regional leadership can thwart BJP’s aggressive campaign. It was for the fourth time that Soren was sworn in. Dressed in a white kurta-pyjama with a pink Nehru jacket, 49-year-old Soren was accompanied on the stage by his wife Kalpana Soren, who has also become an MLA. This was the first time any chief minister had won a second consecutive election. 

He alone took the oath, administered by Governor Santosh Gangwar, while the cabinet ministers will be sworn in later. 

The presence of senior INDIA bloc leadership added heft to the ceremony. Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, AAP convenor and former Delhi CM, came along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and former Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav were also present. Also seated on the stage were JMM supremo and Hemant’s father, Shibu Soren and his mother.

The presence of INDIA bloc leaders signalled that they would stick together for future polls. Delhi and Bihar are the two key elections taking place next year which will determine the strength of these alliances. In Delhi, AAP and Congress are contesting separately, while in Bihar, the grand alliance of RJD and Congress will contest together.

While Soren has mostly confined himself to his state. His historic second term, becoming the longest-serving chief minister of Jharkhand since its formation in 2000, may prompt him to campaign in the neighbouring Bihar. He had successfully halted the BJP’s campaign to wean away tribal voters from him, instead they consolidated in his favour.  The BJP’s strategy of invoking the fear of Bangladeshi migrants did not find traction with the tribal electorate which constitutes over 26 per cent of the state’s population. 

The JMM-led alliance had surpassed its 2019 performance, winning 56 (JMM 34, Congress 16, RJD 6,  CPI (ML)L 2) of the 81 assembly seats. The saving grace for the BJP was that it could retain its last voting percentage of over 33 per cent despite a drop in number of seats to 21 from 25. Its allies, AJSU, JDU, and LJP (RV) had won one each.