Political instability: Bane of small states

The Brahmin-Thakur and Garhwal-Kumaon hills rivalries have resulted in weak governments in Uttarakhand, which was accorded statehood in 2000

When BJP named its third chief minister in less than four months in Uttarakhand, Congress did not spare the opportunity to mock the ruling party saying, instead of ushering in development, BJP has thrown Uttarakhand into political instability and betrayed its people by repeatedly changing chief ministers.

But a closer study of the tale of three states— Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand— created by the then A B Vajpayee-led NDA government in 2000, reveal that while Chhattisgarh saw stable administrations in the last 21 years with all its three CMs not only completed their terms but Raman Singh of BJP had three consecutive terms, the other two states repeatedly underwent pangs of uncertainty.

In Chhattisgarh, the first chief minister, Ajit Jogi, completed the remainder over three year-interim term of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly in Chhattisgarh (after bifurcation in 2000). After this, Raman Singh remained CM from 2003 to 2018, and he was replaced by Bhupesh Baghel of Congress in 2018. None of the CMs had to step down mid way and no intervening spell of President’s Rule was there.

In sharp contrast, both Uttarakhand and Jharkhand had a rocky ride of political instability. Former Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren, who occupied the chair thrice and never completed a full term, had the record of smallest tenure of just 10 days once. While Jharkhand came out of this six years ago with the Raghubar Das-led BJP government being the first one to complete its term between 2014-2019, the spectre of instability still looms large over 'Devbhumi’ Uttarakhand.

The first interim Assembly of Uttarakhand for a period of less than one and half years (2000-01) saw two CMs— Nityananad Swamy and Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. The first full term Assembly for Uttarakhand between 2002 and 2007 saw a welcome change with Chief Minister Narayan Dutt Tiwari completing a full term. But the very next Assembly between 2007 and 2012 saw three changes, first B C Khanduri, followed by Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank and then back to Khanduri (both being Brahmin candidates).

Also read: Uttarakhand: 4 months, 3 Chief Ministers

In the third Assembly (2012-2017), it was the turn of the Opposition party Congress to face the music. It saw four CMs. What first started as internal tussle within Congress, became a BJP-Congress affair as the poaching game began. It also had connotations of a Brahmin-Thakur rivalry, a key political dynamic in the state. There were two spells of Presidents' Rule.

Congress made a Brahmin leader, Vijay Bahuguna, as CM ignoring the claims of rebellious Thakur leader Harish Rawat, who many believed had the backing of more MLAs. Two years later, Bahuguna resigned and Harish Rawat became CM. Bahuguna avenged it later by engineering a split in the party with his supporters. Twice there was President’s Rule in March and April 2016 but Rawat came back as CM after each spell.

The fourth Assembly that started in 2017 has had three CMs with Trivendra Singh Rawat of BJP for four years, Tirath Singh Rawat for four months and now, Pushkar Singh Dhami who has just begun his tenure. "BJP's high drama in Dehradun is an insult to the people of Uttarakhand. The prime minister had promised to give a double-engine government, but the state only received different chief ministers and no development. The BJP has not solved the problems of Uttarakhand and has added to the rising unemployment in the state. It has insulted the Devbhoomi (land of Gods) and the Congress condemns the BJP for giving political instability," said Harish Rawat.

Local issues

Political analysts feel the relatively smaller size of Assembly makes poaching and defections easier in smaller states and elections being fought on very local issues in the formative years of the state ensured that the representation is divided among smaller parties and local leaders, who acted as per their whims. While in Uttarakhand, political instability was more due to competing ambitions and caste rivalry within leaders of national parties, BJP and Congress, in Jharkhand both the national parties had to depend on regional parties like JMM, AJSU, RJD and JD(U) for close to 14 years to stitch up a government. Even later, defections continued.

Jharkhand has seen 11 governments and six CMs in the last 21 years. It took Jharkhand 14 years to stabilise till 2014 when BJP under the Modi wave swept the state and Raghubar Das became CM for full five years. In 2019, JMM-Congress-RJD alliance defeated BJP and Hemant Soren became CM. Before 2014 Assembly polls, Jharkhand had seen nine governments and five CMs starting with the first interim tenure of the Assembly after bifurcation from Bihar in 2000. Babulal Marandi remained CM for a little more than two years followed by Arjun Munda little less than two years. Munda came to power as Marandi faced opposition from NDA allies there.

The next Jharkhand Assembly (2005-2010) made a record of sorts in the history of politics when an independent Madhu Koda became CM replacing BJP's Munda after nearly one and half year in power. The same tenure saw Shibu Soren from the Opposition becoming CM with NDA allies and independents switching sides. The Assembly tenure finally ended with nearly one year of Presidents' Rule.

The third Assembly was no better for Jharkhand with three CMs and two spells of President's Rule between 2009 and 2014. It started with Shibu Soren's chief ministership and ended with his son Hemant Soren's and in between, a nearly two-year tenure by BJP's Arjun Munda as allies and independents kept switching sides.

In the 2014 Assembly polls, stability was a key poll plank and people, fed up with this spectre of political instability, voted in a big way for BJP, which got 37 (double of 18 it had got in 2009) seats in the 81-member Assembly and formed the government with allies. The stability came when it poached six of eight MLAs of rival party JVM (P) of Marandi in 2015. In the 2019 elections, an alliance of JMM-Congress-RJD won a clear majority.