As BJP loses all tribal seats in Jharkhand, heat over arrest of Hemant Soren, its state chief Babulal Marandi

DESPITE several measures to reach out to tribals in Jharkhand, the BJP was not able to win any of the five Scheduled Tribe-reserved seats in the state. In four of these, its margin of defeat was over 1.2 lakh votes.

Following the 2019 Assembly poll debacle, the party had brought back its estranged tribal leader Babulal Marandi and appointed him as the state chief. Leading up to the Lok Sabha elections, it named tribal icon Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary as ‘Tribal Pride Day’, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi not just making several visits to Munda’s birthplace Ulihatu in Khunti, but also launching his Viksit Bharat Yatra from there.

The results also portend tough going for the BJP in the Assembly elections due at the end of the year. The five tribal Lok Sabha seats translate into 28 ST-reserved Assembly constituencies.

The biggest reason for tribal disenchantment with the BJP is believed to be the jailing of JMM chief and INDIA bloc leader Hemant Soren, in the run-up to the elections, in an alleged land-grabbing case. Soren stepped down as Chief Minister before his arrest, naming Champai Soren in his place. Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana won in the bypolls held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections, making her electoral debut.

A Ranchi-based JMM leader said: “The BJP thought it could break the party or impose President’s Rule once Hemant Soren was arrested. Smartly, Soren resigned before being arrested, which gave the BJP no room to experiment… In various tribal pockets, the refrain was ‘Unko kaam nahi karne de raha hai (The Centre is not letting Hemant Soren work)’.”

Kalpana, who campaigned across Jharkhand, also invoked the “injustice” meted out to her husband, an “Adivasi CM”.

Another factor, sources said, was INDIA