BJP faces uphill task to woo tribals in Jharkhand

With barely nine days to go for the first phase of polls in Jharkhand, both the BJP and the JMM have intensified their poll campaign. This Assembly election promises to be a crucial one for both the INDIA bloc and the NDA. Jharkhand has a history of not repeating the same party for the second consecutive time. This jinx is weighing high on the mind of Chief Minister Hemant Soren. The last five years have been a tumultuous period for him.

Jharkhand’s political landscape is shifting fast as Assembly elections draw near. Both the JMM and the BJP are trying hard to woo tribals. JMM chief Hemant Soren in his attempt to ride over the sympathy factor post his arrest in January has come up with a new narrative of “bahris (outsiders),” a reference to the BJP, and “bhitris (insiders)”, referring to Adivasis and moolvasis. JMM also wants to build on the women connect which was built by Kalpana Soren, the wife of Hemant, after her husband was arrested in January by central probe agencies.

The BJP certainly has a hard task to wrest the state from its rivals. It has an uphill task to woo the tribal voters in the 28 constituencies reserved for the STs who constitute about 28% of the total voters. There has been steady erosion of the BJP’s votes in the tribal belt since 2019. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP lost all five Lok Sabha seats, and this seen as a fallout of the arrest of Hemant. The JMM has been able to build its strength in the tribal belt due to the legacy it had inherited from Shibu Soren, the father of Hemant Soren, in the tribal belt.

BJP has an advantage in that it was quick in deciding seat sharing and candidates and despite Hemant Soren introducing a slew of measures post his comeback, there is growing anti-incumbency and disarray in the alliance. BJP wants to leverage on the image of Modi. The PM had already visited the state twice in two months. Senior BJP leaders are camping in the state and are closely monitoring the day-to-day campaign and are focusing on strategies for micromanagement on the day of polling.

Irked by the JMM campaign that the BJP is a “dying tree,” and that the BJP-led NDA government wants to introduce Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in Jharkhand which would take away the rights of the tribals, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday announced that the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) would certainly be implemented in Jharkhand but the tribals would be kept out of its ambit. He emphasised that BJP cares about the tribals, natives, Dalits and backward communities and would not do anything that would affect their rights.

Now, why is this election so important for the bloc INDIA of which JMM is a partner and the NDA alliance? The BJP wants to send a message that it has regained its lost ground. Hemant wants to achieve a record of coming back to power for a second consecutive time which no other party in the state has so far managed. It will also be a test of Soren’s popularity in the tribal belt. For Congress, the election is all about gaining relevance after the Haryana setback and repeating its 2019 performance, when the party won 16 assembly seats. This being a bipolar election, even a minor shift towards any alliance could be a game changer.