jharkhand Archives - Page 7 of 37

Hemant Soren sworn in as Chief Minister of Jharkhand.

Source – newsonair.com

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, JMM leader Hemant Soren took oath as the 11th Chief Minister of the state today. Governor Draupadi Murmu administered the oath of office to Mr Soren at Morhabadi grounds in Ranchi. This is 44 year Soren’ second stint as Jharkhand Chief Minister. After taking the oath, newly sworn in Chief Minister called for people’s support to frame a new structure of the state.

Along with Soren, Congress Legislature Party Leader Alamgir Alam state Congress president Rameshwar Oraon and only MLA of RJD Satyanand Bhokta were also sworn in as state cabinet ministers.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee, Congress Chief Ministers Bhupesh Baghel, Ashok Gehlot, Former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi, ex-CM of Bihar Jitan Ram Manjhi, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav, Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, CPI Chief D Raja, CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechuri, DMK Chief M K Stalin, MP M K Kanimozhi, AAP MP Sanjay Singh were among the leaders who witnessed the historic swearing-in ceremony of the Opposition-led government. In the 81 member Assembly, JMM-Congress-RJD alliance has won 47 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections. BJP has got 25 seats.

Meanwhile in its maiden Cabinet meeting held today, Hemant Soren led coalition government took several important decisions. It announced to take back all the cases lodged against accused in Pathalgadi movement and early filling up of all posts lying vacant in the state government. It was also decided that Fastrack courts will be soon set up in all districts for early redressal of cases related to women and child sexual harassment.

AIR correspondent reports that JMM Senior Leader Stephen Marandi from Maheshpur constituency will be nominated as the Protem Speaker for the new Assembly session of the government to be held from January 6-8, in 2020. All the newly elected legislators will also take oath of office and secrecy in the new Assembly session.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Hemant Soren on taking oath as Jharkhand Chief Minister. In a tweet, Mr Modi assured all possible support from the Centre for Jharkhand’s growth.

Understanding the local, in Jharkhand and beyond.

Source – hindustantimes.com

Interpreting state election results is fraught with risk, as analysts combine explanations that rarely point in the same direction. The data suggests that state elections are fought and won on local lines, and that recognisable regional leadership can put a challenge to national political figures, as has happened in many of the recent assembly elections. At the same time, analysts try to interpret the meaning of the outcome in the larger political framework — national politics or the next state election.

In the recently concluded election in Jharkhand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Mahagathbandan (MGB) of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Rashtriya Janata Party and the Congress have similar vote shares — 33.4% for the BJP and 32.6% for the MGB. But the margin suggests that the latter’s victory could easily have been a landslide but for a few thousand votes. Sixteen Members of Legislative Assembly have been elected with margins of less than 5%, nine of them from the BJP.

The MGB’s advantage lay in the tribal belts, where the JMM won 16 seats and the Congress six, against the BJP’s two. Participation was also higher in these areas, particularly the Santhal Parganas Division and the Kolhan Division, which the MGB swept. It’s proof that the alliance successfully channelised voters’ discontent with the incumbent’s performance. Given the relatively small size of the assembly — 81 seats — local and subregional dynamics are more likely to have had an impact on the outcome, more so than in larger states where those effects tend to be more diluted.

Another factor that played in favour of the alliance is the BJP’s decision to go alone in the polls. Its erstwhile partner, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), cost the party the vote share it needed to stay ahead. The AJSU’s effort to mobilise the Other Backward Castes — the Kurmis in particular — considerably harmed the BJP, particularly in central Jharkhand, where the Congress performed well even in urban seats.

In retrospect, the decision to go alone proved fatal for a BJP led by an unpopular chief minister. Jharkhand’s history, with no party ever winning a majority in the House since the creation of the state, should have informed the party of the uphill task. The cumulative vote share of the main contenders — the BJP, Congress and JMM — over the past four elections has been 49.9% in 2005, 51.6% in 2009, 62% in 2014 and 68.7% in 2019, respectively. Even though the vote share of the main contenders is steadily going up, it still leaves one out of three voters not opting for any of the major contenders. It signifies the importance of local factors as well as local political forces.

Among the national parties, the Jharkhand success shows the Congress that it pays off to assume the role of junior partner in a pre-electoral alliance. Its candidates underperformed compared to the JMM candidates, particularly when in direct contest with the BJP. The Congress had a difficult task against the BJP in urban and general seats, but contesting fewer seats compensated for its comparative weakness of having no visible leadership. It left the stage to Hemant Soren, who was projected as the chief ministerial candidate. The Jharkhand results may lead the party to reconsider its alliance strategies in upcoming elections in Delhi and Bihar.read more

For the BJP, this is an opportunity to rethink its strategy in state elections. Though one can argue that the party has maintained its vote share, the Jharkhand result is a setback, particularly when some of its national policies are backfiring and the economy continues to be weak. Even if there is no clear impact of the current national controversies in the Jharkhand election, the fact that the BJP campaigned exactly on those issues and lost shows these issues have little endorsement at the regional level. They don’t seem to compensate for the state government’s lacklustre performance.

The BJP’s post-2014 winning spree in state polls created an image of the party’s dominance, if not hegemony. The results of the last six state elections show that while the BJP uses its strengths to make inroads in new political spaces, it is unable to use the same cards to retain power. This will have far-reaching consequences for the BJP at the Centre, which will become increasingly dependent on non-BJP states to implement its policies. Many chief ministers — including within the National Democratic Alliance — going back on the National Register of Citizens is one of the first examples of future hurdles.

In such a situation, the BJP is left with only two options. Either it tightens its grip on the organisation and centralises powers further, including pushing on levers against state governments. Or it gives some leeway to its state organisations and regional leaders, and lets them lead the fight on local or regional terms. One can, though, argue that the BJP normally doesn’t let its grip go on its regional structure. The alternative would be the route chosen by Indira Gandhi, who, faced with mounting challenges from the states, both from within and outside her party, concentrated powers further to the point of rupture with democratic norms.

Jharkhand: Local issues win over BJP’s Hindutva and vikas model.

Source – hindustantimes.com

At a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in the Jamtara constituency for the Jharkhand assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath asked the crowd: “Koi Irfan Ansari jitega toh Ram Mandir kaise banega? (If some Irfan Ansari wins, how will Ram Mandir be constructed?)”. This was just one of the many instances of how BJP leaders used the Ram Mandir, the reading down of Article 370, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to mobilise voters on communal lines in the elections.

In Jamtara, Irfan Ansari, the gathbandhan’s candidate, supported by voters of all communities, won by a margin of more than 35,000 votes. Not just in Jamtara, but gathbandhan’s decisive win across Jharkhand shows that voters were not impressed with the BJP’s Hindutva agenda. Rather than gaining, the BJP ended up losing a few seats as compared to 2014. The gathbandhan, comprising the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), won 47 seats (JMM – 30, Congress – 16, RJD – 1), while the BJP secured only 25 (down from 37 in 2014) in the 81-seat assembly.

The results have surprised many as the BJP (with All Jharkhand Student Union party) won 12 of 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state only six months ago. In the general elections, the BJP was able to sway voters on Hindutva, nationalism and its so-called “vikas” model. But this time, the party paid dearly for the widespread unpopularity of chief minister Raghubar Das and its severing of ties with the All Jharkhand Student Union, which is supported by an OBC base. The striking takeaway is that, unlike the Lok Sabha election, this time, people voted mainly on misgovernance and failures of the BJP-led government. The opposition parties also played their role in mobilising voters on local issues.

The BJP’s “vikas” model – roads, toilets, houses and LPG cylinders – may have got the party some votes. But the general neglect of welfare – food security, social security schemes, public health and education – cost the party many more. Disruptions in the Public Distribution System due to its linkage with Aadhaar was a common complaint across the state. The breakdown of food security schemes also led to the death of at least 23 persons because of starvation.

Both the state and central BJP leadership often referred to the Das government’s work as “double-engine vikas” i.e. development powered by same party at state and Centre. This was also a key pitch in this election campaign. But it failed to cut ice in the face of rising unemployment, stagnating rural wages and economic insecurities of people.

There was increasing disconnect between the government and the needs of the people, exemplified in tribal areas (Scheduled Tribes comprise 26% of the total population). Despite increasing its cultural and political footprint in the 28 Adivasi Vidhan Sabha seats over the years, the BJP could win only two (whereas it got 11 in 2014). In the last five years, the party gained the reputation of being detrimental to tribal interests. A major reason was the attempts by the government to forcefully acquire tribal land for corporates. To this effect, the government repeatedly tried to amend local tenancy laws. It was forced to abort these efforts after they were met with massive protests across the state. The repressive response of the government to several protests against these policies alienated the tribals further.

To weaken the protests, the state government tried to divide the adivasis on religious identity. It formulated the anti-conversion act and used it to pit non-Christian adivasis against Christian ones. The blatantly communal agenda of the government was further exposed by the series of mob lynching incidents. Since 2014, Jharkhand has witnessed the highest number of incidents of lynching against Muslims and tribals – mostly triggered by rumours of consumption, smuggling or slaughter of cows. In many cases, local leaders of the BJP or other members of saffron groups were involved or extended tacit support to the perpetrators.

To the opposition’s credit, it focused on people’s issues throughout its campaign and effectively exposed the failures of the government. Unlike in the Lok Sabha elections when the opposition failed to get its act together on the ground, the parties, mainly JMM, mobilised people through yatras, rallies and door-to-door campaigning. The opposition could communicate its commitments and messages clearly to the voters. Moving beyond the traditional Adivasi vote base, the JMM was able to make inroads amongst the electorally significant backward caste voters (OBCs comprise about 35% of population). It was also successful in consolidating votes on the question of “Jhakhandi” identity as opposed to BJP’s Hindutva.

Despite driving its campaign with a “double engine” fuelled by 20 rallies of Modi and Amit Shah, the BJP, as expected, is trying to distance its national leadership from the loss. But the result is as much a reflection on state government’s failure as a statement against the BJP’s communal and divisive politics. As massive people protests against the CAA and NRC continue across the country, the Jharkhand result comes as an electoral referendum against the two policies. The question is will the national Opposition take a leaf from this result and take a clear stand against BJP’s Hindutva in the days to come.

Jharkhand is a mandate of the poor, for their rights.

Source – hindustantimes.com

The verdict for the Jharkhand assembly is, first and foremost, a verdict in favour of a new localism, and is a reflection of people’s voice overwhelming the arena of state elections in India.

One key issue, which helps frame the meaning of the verdict, is the struggle of adivasis against purported amendments to their land rights by the Raghubar Das-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, with its acquisition deemed unjust in the name of intended development. At an even deeper level, the protest of poor people on this and other related issues of their rights as tribal citizens — specially through the pathalgadi movement— brings to fore their belief in the salience of the Constitution and voting or matdan as a preferred form of political change. At the very least, it is the “demand side” of politics, especially from the asymmetrically placed poor voter, powerless and vulnerable, that has overwhelmed and realigned the “supply side” on offer from political parties.

Conventional vectors used to understand Jharkhand fail to explain this new turn. For one, the verdict is not just about identities of the tribal, nor is it about the manipulation of patronage and money — for long considered the bane of Jharkhand politics. Nor are the outcomes simply a reflection of the overwhelming “arithmetic” of the coalition.

First the outcome itself: The formidable majority obtained by the pre-poll alliance of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), is a historic first for this alliance in general, and the JMM in particular. Since Jharkhand was formed in November 2000, following its bifurcation from the erstwhile larger state of Bihar, and since its first state election 2005, the 81-member assembly has always seen fragmented verdicts, with post-poll coalitions being stitched to form governments.

The BJP championed the struggle for the new state. But it has only ruled with the support of the JMM, and, subsequently, with the support of the All Jharkhand Students Union led by Sudesh Mahto, and by engineering defections from Jharkhand Vikas Morcha led by Babulal Marandi — an erstwhile BJP chief minister (CM).

In 2014, the BJP central leadership decided to appoint a non-tribal leader as CM in Raghubar Das. The understanding was that at just about 27% of the population, and with sub-tribal internal differences such as those between the Santhals, Mundas, and Oraons, the BJP could play a “caste plus tribe politics” of vote banks. This would include the Mahtos (17%) under the leadership of ally Sudesh Mahto, and forward castes and urban voters. It is noteworthy that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, as the Hindustan Times reported on November 2, the Narendra Modi-led BJP polled 70% of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) vote, 60% of the upper-caste vote, and 65% of the Hindu Scheduled Tribe votes.

In the state elections, however, this assumption of a fused tribe-caste vote bank in favour of the BJP proved erroneous. Tribal fears about dilution of the Chotanagpur Tenenacy Act (1908), and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act (1949) were rampant. The CM had, in the assembly, moved an amendment to the central land acquisition Act, such that the state government was no longer required to conduct social impact assessments, provide for schools, colleges; nor social security for the displaced.

On many occasions, paltry sums were given to the tribals in exchange for land. This stoked fears among the tribals. After all, Shibu Soren earned the name of being the “Dishom Guruji” for having struggled to free the tribal poor from the clutches of the money lender, and to get their land back. The pathalgadi movement, centred in Khoonti, was a movement in revolt. A constitutional protest, it sought to uphold the rights of tribals under Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, and the role of gram sabha in prior consent to developmental schemes, and was an assertion of their human rights. Citizens cast these constitutional rights in stones, pathal, and erected these outside their village boundaries. The state government responded with force, and more than 10,000 FIRs were registered on protesting tribals. The JMM campaign was pitched primarily on the issue of land-rights of tribals. It also promised implementation of the recommendations of the Sachar Committee report, and reservations in jobs for locals in the private sector. An alliance of tribals, minorities, and the poor among caste Hindus coalesced on the ground to support the coalition that Hemant Soren will lead, reaping the legacy of his father.

For the BJP, the lessons are simple. For a party that had strong foundations in the Jharkhand area, and among the tribals, the unabashed adoption of developmentalism alienating tribal rights cannot be premised in majoritarianism or strong political backing of the Centre. The party needs to go back to the grassroots, where it has a base of work with the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams and other educational activities.

Many would like to see this as a return of the regional party politics, a victory of loose coalitions against a strong centre, a format prevalent since the 1990s. However, when one aligns oneself to the ground, listening to the voices of the poor, and adopts a lens of political geography that foregrounds the meaning of Jharkhand, it is clear that this is a massive mandate of the poor.

Sweaters team up with raincoats in Jharkhand.

Source – telegraphindia.com

Chilly, foggy and wet. Jharkhand woke up to a freaky Thursday, with the weather god showering unseasonal rain at many places, including Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

Kuru in Lohardaga district topped the rain-o-meter with 28mm while the IMD observatory in capital Ranchi recorded over 20mm of rain.

Ramgarh, Hindgir (Ranchi district), Putki (Dhanbad district), Dhanbad town and Tenughat (Bokaro district) recorded around 10mm rain in the past 24 hours (between 8.30am of Wednesday and 8.30am of Thursday).

Intermittent rain was also reported from Bokaro, Khunti, Chaibasa and places in Seraikela-Kharsawan. Steel city Jamshedpur also saw light intermittent showers.

The weather conditions resulted in an interesting temperature flip-flop. Maximum or day readings came down by 4-6°C notches below normal , while minimum or night readings rose due to formation of clouds and heavy moisture inflow into the atmosphere.

Ranchi on Thursday recorded a maximum temperature of 16°C against Wednesday’s 19.7 °C. Thursday’s day reading was four notches below normal. In Jamshedpur, the day reading dropped to 19.4°C on Thursday, five notches below normal. On Wednesday, the IMD observatory here had recorded day temperature of 24.9°C. Day temperature also saw a fall in several other districts, including Daltonganj, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribgah, Koderma and other districts in Santhal Pargana.

Minimum temperatures hovered between 12 to 15 °C (three to four notches above normal) in most parts of the state on Thursday.

S.C. Mandal, the acting director of Ranchi Meteorological Centre, predicted an improvement in weather condition from Friday. “Light rains will be experienced in several pockets till late in the night today (Thursday). But, we are expecting dry weather from Fridat as the impact of the anti-cyclone prevailing over Jharkhand and neighbouring Chhattisgarh would wane, ” he said.

The weatherman extended the forecast of shallow to moderate fog for the next 48 hours.

Residents scurried for cover as the day temperature saw a plunge. I prefered to stay indoors while my husband wore a raincoat to office,” said Purnima Singh, a homemaker in Sonari.

Train timings hit

The prevailing cold wave in northern parts of India has thrown into disarray the schedules of many long-distance trains coming to Tatanagar from New Delhi and other destinations.

Thursday’s Rajdhani Express between New Delhi and Bhubaneswar via Tatanagar ran 10 hours late. The schedule arrival time of Rajdhani Express at Tatanagar is 10.30am but the train was expected to reach around 9pm.

The Puri-bound Purushottam Superfast Express, scheduled to reach Tatanagar at 8pm, was also late by three hours. The Haridwar to Puri Utkal Kalinga Express was also running late for the second consecutive day on Thursday. Against its correct arrival time of 8.20pm the train was expected at Tatanagar on Thursday around 10.30pm.

The New Delhi-Puri

Neelanchal Express fared no better. Against its arrival time of 7.30am on Thursday, it reached Tatanagar at 2.30pm. The Amritsar-Tata Jammu-Tawi Express, scheduled to reach Tatanagar at 10.30am, reached at 1.30pm, after a delay of three hours.

Railway authorities blamed the fog and cold wave for the delays.

Jharkhand Results Indicate That AAP Will Sweep Delhi Polls: Sanjay Singh.

Source – ndtv.com

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh on Wednesday said that the Jharkhand Assembly poll results indicate that his party will come back to power for a second consecutive term in Delhi.

“It is evident that AAP will come back to power in Delhi with a thumping majority. The results of Jharkhand indicate that now elections will be fought on local issues. Today, inflation, education, health are real issues. We have worked on these issues in Delhi,” Mr Singh told reporters in Delhi.

“Jharkhand results indicate that the people of Delhi will make Kejriwal win with a big majority. People will vote for the work done,” he said.

In Jharkhand, BJP suffered a major defeat as Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance, including Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal, secured a comfortable majority bagging 47 seats in the 81-member Assembly.

Delhi, where 70 seats are at stake will go to poll early next year. In 2015, the ruling AAP registered a landslide victory by winning 67 seats.

Understanding the local, in Jharkhand and beyond.

Source – hindustantimes.com

After Jharkhand Loss, BJP’s Bihar Mission Is To Keep Nitish Kumar Happy.

Source – ndtv.com

Patna: With the BJP suffering a crushing defeat in the Jharkhand elections after its separation from the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), the party leadership in neighbouring Bihar on Thursday insisted that its alliance with Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United remains strong and unaffected by differences over seat-sharing.

“The NDA is united in Bihar, and there are no differences over seat-sharing. Our alliance is led by five-time Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,” tweeted Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.

Significantly, he also praised Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Hemant Soren – who is set to lead the alliance government in Jharkhand – even if it was only to put down the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav.

“The Mahagathbandhan‘s (grand alliance’s) leadership is not in the hands of a person who is educated, simple and polite like Hemant Soren, but with a young man who has been charged with 54 benami property cases at the age of 29,” Mr Modi further claimed in his tweet.

The Congress-JMM combine scored an impressive victory in Jharkhand in the just-concluded elections, bagging 47 seats as compared to the BJP’s 25 and the AJSU’s two. Even as the results were coming through, Tejashwi Yadav – who is also the leader of the opposition in the Bihar assembly – hinted that it would have a cascading effect on the assembly elections next year.

Mr Modi’s tweet was seen as a response to this claim.

Besides Jharkhand, the BJP also suffered a massive loss in Maharashtra last month after the Shiv Sena ended their 30-year-old alliance after differences over sharing the chief minister’s position on a rotational basis. After the latest defeat, Janata Dal United spokesperson Sanjay Singh warned the BJP against pushing its luck with allies. Even Shiromani Akali Dal leader Naresh Gujral said that a bulk of the ruling party’s allies were “unhappy” over issues like the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

However, BJP MP Ramkripal Yadav rejected suggestions of dissent among allies in Bihar, saying that the extraordinary work done by Nitish Kumar would ensure the coalition’s return to power next year.

For now, the party leadership in Bihar has resolved to keep the Janata Dal United in good humour at all costs. BJP leader Giriraj Singh – who had clashed with Nitish Kumar during the Patna floods earlier this year – has been told to not make any controversial statements on the Citizenship Amendment Act or the NRC, and the party is wary of the Janata Dal United seeking a bigger slice of the seat-sharing pie ahead of the polls.

Jharkhand CM-designate Hemant Soren Meets Sonia Gandhi, Invites Her for Swearing-in Ceremony.

Source – news18.com

New Delhi: Jharkhand chief minister-designate Hemant Soren on Wednesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and invited her for his swearing-in ceremony scheduled in Ranchi on December 29.

Soren arrived here in the afternoon and is also expected to meet Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and invite them for the function. He was accompanied by Congress leaders KC Venugopal and RPN Singh, who is the party’s in-charge for Jharkhand.

Before the meeting with Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence, Soren had said it is a courtesy meeting. Soren also wanted to thank the Congress and its leadership for their support in helping form a coalition government in the state, sources close to him said.

The JMM-led three-party alliance stormed to power in Jharkhand on Monday, ousting the BJP in yet another state in the Hindi heartland after the saffron party’s stupendous performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

The JMM on Wednesday said Governor Droupadi Murmu has invited its working president and chief minister-designate Hemant Soren to form government.

The governor’s invitation comes a day after Soren called on the governor at Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form government, submitting a letter of support of 50 MLAs to her.

The pre-poll opposition combines bagged 47 seats (JMM 30, Congress 16 and RJD one) in the 81-member assembly, while the three-member JVM (P) has extended “unconditional support” to Soren to form government.

Contesting the Jharkhand elections alone for the first time sans long-standing ally the AJSU Party, the ruling BJP bagged 25 seats.

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.