How Sharad Pawar’s Maharashtra strategy shaped Congress’ Jharkhand poll campaign.

Source – hindustantimes.com

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar’s poll strategy in Maharashtra shaped the Congress’s election campaign in Jharkhand, where it kept the focus on local issues, the economy and jobs, and avoided getting into a debate on nationalism pushed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The political narratives were widely divergent in the tribal-dominated state where the five-phase election ended on Friday and vote counting will be taken up and the outcome announced on Monday,

The BJP made the revocation of Article 370, which scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) the main planks of its poll campaign. The Congress and its alliance partner, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), stuck to their tactic of keeping the rivals engaged on local matters, and limited the discourse on national issues to the economic slowdown, rising prices and unemployment.

The Congress had undoubtedly taken a leaf out of Pawar’s book. The Maratha leader, during the Maharashtra election campaign, successfully skirted he BJP’s nationalism narrative and campaigned extensively on local issues.

“It was deliberate on our part to keep the elections focussed on local issues and not fall into the BJP’s trap of making it nationalism-centered. We had also received feedback that there is strong anti-incumbency against BJP chief minister Raghubar Das and as such they will raise the pitch on Article 370, Ayodhya and the CAB {Citizenship Amendment Bill, now an Act},” said senior Congress leader Ajay Sharma. “We didn’t let that happen and kept the campaign entirely Jharkhand-centric.”

Sharma handled the Congress’s campaign in Ranchi and assisted the party’s Jharkhand in-charge, RPN Singh, in planning strategy.

He said the Congress also thwarted all attempts by the BJP to make it an election centred on Prime Minister Narendra Modi; the ruling party decided to increase his number of Modi rallies it organised in Jharkhand after assessing that local leaders were not getting the required traction on the ground, he said.

The Congress had crafted a different campaign plan for each of the five phases of elections. The party had also planned to end the campaigning on December 18 with a rally by either Congress president Sonia Gandhi or party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The latter, eventually, addressed a public meeting along with JMM chief Hemant Soren at Pakur in the Santhal-Pargana region. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi addressed four rallies across the state.

“For the first time in 18 years, the Congress was in a fighting-fit form and we gave our best. Besides, the in-charge [RPN Singh] camped in the state for 40 consecutive days, which never happened in the past,” said the party’s state working president, Rajesh Thakur.

Jharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo dismissed the contention that the ruling party was on the back foot on local issues and instead blamed the opposition alliance for polarising the electorate.

“We started with ‘Ghar Ghar Raghubar’ campaign and talked about stability and development in the last five years of the BJP government. But the Congress and JMM leaders started polarising the elections by talking negatively about Article 370 and we responded by exposing their double standards,” Shahdeo said.

He claimed that the alliance also hit the panic button after receiving feedback that minority voters were supporting the BJP in large numbers.

Political analysts said local issues dominated the poll discourse among a large section of voters during the elections. “Roti [bread], kapda [clothes] aur makaan [house] are important for all and they take precedence over national issues. Voters across the country have shown that they vote differently for national and state elections,” said LK Kundan, associate professor in the political science department at Ranchi University.

In the elections tor the 81-member Jharkhand assembly, the Congress contested 31 seats, the JMM 43 and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the third partner in the opposition alliance, seven. The BJP and the All Jharkhand Students Union, or AJSU, Party could not reach an electoral understanding and fought the elections separately.

“It is a ploy. They [BJP and AJSU] have been together for five years and will join hands after the elections. The people are seeing through their drama and will hand over a crushing defeat to them,” Sharma said.

Grand alliance energised after Jharkhand results; BJP on backfoot in Bihar, say experts.

source – hindustantimes.com

The assembly election result in Jharkhand has infused more energy in the grand alliance. The ‘Mahagathbandhan’ of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress overthrew the Raghubar Das-led BJP government in the state and has its eyes set on the 2020 assembly elections in Bihar.

On Monday night, RJD president Lalu Prasad, imprisoned in Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Central jail in connection with fodder scam cases, quietly congratulated JMM leader Hemant Soren and gave his blessings from a government hospital where he is undergoing medical treatment. As the votes were being counted, Lalu’s younger son and Leader of Opposition in Bihar assembly, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, had predicted victory for Soren and congratulated him in advance.

Drawing a parallel between Jharkhand and Bihar, leaders of the Congress and the RJD observed that the Jharkhand’s poll verdict gave a clear message that they would have an easy win in Bihar also if they remained united and respected one other.

“Jharkhand poll reaffirmed the perception that GA (grand alliance) is a viable alternative people are looking for. After Jharkhand, it is now the turn of Bihar to banish the Nitish Kumar-led NDA,” said Congress MLC and AICC media panelist Prem Chandra Mishra.

RJD legislator Bhai Birendra, also the party spokesman, said that countdown of Nitish Kumar-led government in Bihar has started. “Nitish Kumar has lived his political innings. He is now irrelevant in Bihar. However, the results may help his JD(U) to bargain for greater stake in NDA in the state as well Centre,” said Birendra, ruling out any chance of Kumar’s return to the RJD-led coalition.

“The results in Jharkhand will have a direct bearing on Bihar’s elections as well. After the formation of government in Jharkhand, we will see how the JMM could play its role in unseating the NDA in Bihar,” said JMM general secretary Binod Pandey, adding that Sibu Soren-led party still had good clout among the electorate in Bihar.

The RJD has other reasons to feel elated as the JD(U) could not win even a single seat, despite contesting on 47. BJP’s another alliance partner, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), too, contested on 50 seats but failed to open its account.

RESULTS TO CAST SPELL ON BIHAR

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had, in October, announced that the BJP will fight next year’s assembly election in Bihar in alliance with the Janata Dal (United) and under the leadership of the Nitish Kumar. Some political analysts say Kumar had started hobnobbing with the RJD after statements against him from BJP leaders. But, BJP seems to have realised that falling back on Kumar was a safer option in Bihar.

The BJP had sacrificed five seats to accommodate JD(U) in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It had contested on 30 seats in 2014, won 22 seats with a vote share of 29.86 per cent wheras the JD(U) contested on 38 seats independently and got 16.04 per cent votes. It won on just two seats. Another of the BJP’s alliance partner in 2014, the LJP, contested on seven seats and won on six with a vote share of 6.50 per cent.

Analysts feel that the BJP not getting the numbers in Jharkhand will give it a tough time ahead. In Bihar, the saffron party will be on the backfoot.

But leaders of JD(U) and BJP rule out any breach in alliance in Bihar.

“The socio-economic and cultural identity of Bihar is completely different from that of Jharkhand. In Jharkhand, there was no alliance in NDA. But in Bihar, BJP president Amit Shah has already announced that the elections will be contested under Nitish Kumar who is a tested leader. Moreover, the Opposition here is not united,” said JD(U) leader KC Tyagi.

“The Jharkhand poll results won’t have any impact on Bihar because the demography and geography is divergent in both the states. The NDA government is working hard towards the development of Bihar and we will win the 2020 assembly elections comfortably,” said Bihar BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand.

Political analyst D M Diwakar of A N Sinha Institute for Social Studies, however, opines that the results are going to make an impact in Bihar. “It will revitalise the grand alliance and help improve its performance. For the NDA, hard times lie ahead. The only solace is that they have cleared the air on chief ministerial candidate. The anti-incumbency has set in and they will have to re-think their strategy,” he said.

Diwakar feels that when it will come to seat-sharing for the assembly seats, the JD(U) will again have an upper hand. On the other hand, the BJP leadership by projecting Kumar, has shown that it was “desperate not to lose JD (U)”.

Jharkhand Poll Result Sends Ripples Through Political Waters of Bihar as Assembly Elections Inch Closer.

Source – news18.com

Patna: Results of the assembly polls in Jharkhand sent ripples through the political waters of Bihar, the parent state out of which the tribal-dominated region was carved out in 2000, capping a movement that had continued for close to a century.

Lalu Prasad’s RJD, once formidable but down in the dumps for some time, erupted in joy over the triumph of the JMM-led alliance, in which it is a minor partner, as it kindled hopes of replicating the success in Bihar where assembly elections are less than a year away.

At the party’s state headquarters here on the Birchand Patel Marg, RJD workers began distributing sweets no sooner than the trends started pouring in and chanted slogans vowing to help Tejashwi Yadav their young chief ministerial candidate for Bihar, who had been actively involved in electioneering in Jharkhand to power.

The party relished the thought of being a part of the winning combination in the adjoining state, even though its own strike rate was far from impressive – winning only one out of the seven seats it had contested.

Shivanand Tiwary, RJD national vice president exuberantly said “why not” when asked by reporters if the party would like to join the new government in Jharkhand.

He termed the victory as “defeat of the BJP’s jingoistic politics” and questioned its “duplicity” on the matter of National Register for Citizens, “which has put the country on the boil”.

“The BJP’s official twitter handle says it has country-wide implementation of NRC on its agenda. So does its president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. But, Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday dismissed it as something off the radar. Why is the PM lying before the nation?” Tiwary asked.

The Congress – an alliance partner of the RJD both in Bihar and Jharkhand – was also buoyed by the poll outcome in the neighbouring state. Leader of the legislative party Sadanand Singh, who has headed the Bihar Congress in the past, advocated “all non-BJP forces, including Chief Minister Nitish Kumar” to heed “the need for coming together to defeat the BJP”.

Kumar, who is running a coalition government with the BJP, has been drawing opposition flak after his party voted in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which allegedly discriminates against Muslims.

He has, however, attempted damage control by asserting that he is opposed to NRC as its “combo” with CAA was what made the new law troublesome.

The BJP, which has been on a roll for quite some time and a section of its leaders desirous of putting an end to playing second fiddle to Nitish Kumar, appeared chastened and sought to downplay its defeat in Jharkhand by attributing it to “local factors”.

“The result of Jharkhand must be viewed with reference to local factors and the agony of people because of unfulfilled individual grievances. The state government worked really well but failed to communicate well to the public. The party will assess the whole situation and scenario in coming days.

“The Jharkhand result will have no impact on Bihar because the demography and geography is completely different in both the states,” Bihar BJP spokesman Nikhil Anand said here in a statement.

The NDA government is working hard towards the development of Bihar, and “we are sitting pretty well to win the 2020 assembly election comfortably”, he added.

Jharkhand poll: Voting for 12 seats ends, 57.96 per cent votes cast.

Source – newindianexpress.com

RANCHI: Voting ended for 12 of the 17 assembly seats at 3 p.m. in the third phase of the polls with 57.96 per cent votes being cast on Thursday.

The voting will end at 5 p.m. for the Ranchi, Hatia, Kanke, Ramgarh and Barkatha assembly seats.

Jharkahnd Governor Draupdi Murmu cast her vote at ATI Ranchi while AJSU president Sudesh Mahtyo cast his vote along with his wife at Silli. Jayant Sinha cast his vote in Hazaribagh.

In the third phase the key candidates are three ministers — CP Singh, Ramchandra Sahis and Neera Yadav, Former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi and former Deputy Chief Minister and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) president Sudesh Mahto.

Of the 17 seats, BJP, JMM and Congress had won 10, three and two seats respectively in the 2014 Assembly elections.

There is a direct fight on between the BJP, Congress and JMM candidates on seven seats. For the Silli seat the fight is between AJSU president Sudesh Mahto and JMM sitting legislator Seema Devi. There is a triangular fight on six seats. For some seats the fight is four-cornered or multi-cornered.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jharkahnd Chief Minister Raghubar Das have appealed to the voters to cast their votes.