Cong's wrong move may give BJP a walkover

As campaigning for the second phase of elections for 20 seats in Jharkhand ended on Sunday evening, the BJP appeared to be miles ahead of its rivals the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) and the Congress.

The day the grand old party called off its alliance with the JMM, it gave the BJP a walkover in the State which has never seen a stable government in the last 14 years.

Jharkhand has seen nine governments, five chief ministers (Babulal Marandi, Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda, Shibu Soren and Hemant Soren), eight governors, nine speakers and three president’s rule in the last 14 years. While Munda and Soren each served as chief minister thrice, Marandi, Koda and Hemant each served as chief minister once.

There are many reasons for the Congress’ approach. As soon as the Jharkhand polls were announced, the party wanted all the non-BJP parties to join hands to stop BJP’s march to success.

It not only talked with JMM, but roped in Babulal Marandi’s JVM. The alliance could not fructify as Chief Minister Hemant Soren reportedly blocked Marandi’s entry. Marandi retaliated by refusing to accept Hemant’s leadership.

In the process, the Congress made a bid to drive a hard bargain with JMM. Eventually, neither the JMM nor JVM could reach an understanding with the Congress. 

The BJP, which was too happy with these developments, could not hide its glee. It made an unsuccessful attempt to bring into its fold Marandi, an ex-BJP man who headed Jharkhand’s first government.

But Marandi reportedly put a rider before the top BJP brass that he be declared the chief ministerial candidate of the saffron camp. His condition was rejected outright. As a consequence, all alliance talks developed fissures.

The only pact to fall in place was BJP-AJSU-LJP combine where the All Jharkhand Students Union was given eight seats and Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP,  barely one constituency.

On the other hand, the non-BJP parties like the JMM are fighting JVM, which in turn is fighting Congress. Hence, the  party is facing a rough weather even in Christian-dominated constituencies.  

The common joke in Jharkhand is that the BJP candidates may win from places where Modi has campaigned, while the Congress nominees are likely to lose wherever Rahul has addressed a rally.