Rethink On Strategy With Dose Of Humility: Lessons For BJP From Jharkhand Verdict

For a state that had, in its two-decade history, never seen a government last its full term until BJP바카라�s Raghubar Das assumed office in 2014, Monday바카라�s result for the Jharkhand assembly poll may seem ironic. Ever since it was carved out of Bihar in November 2000, Jharkhand바카라�s politics was largely known for the frequency with which the state바카라�s chief ministers changed and the long spells of President바카라�s Rule that this political instability brought with it. In that sense, Das accomplished the rare distinction of leading a stable government that completed its term.

Ordinarily, the turbulent political history of Jharkhand and the experience of his predecessors should have given Das a clear guidebook of the do바카라�s and don바카라�ts that could have guaranteed his longevity in power. Yet, the poll results suggest Das not just floundered but failed spectacularly. But that바카라�s just half the story that unfolded in the tribal-dominated eastern state known for its rich mineral reserves but poor human resource indices and crumbling law and order.

The appointment of Das as chief minister in 2014 was part of a new pattern of leadership that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah had sought to develop by handpicking chief ministers who neither belonged to a dominant caste or community of a state nor had the credentials of a mass base. Months before Das, an OBC leader, was chosen to lead tribal-dominated Jharkhand, the BJP had bet on M.L. Khattar, a Punjabi Khatri, as chief minister in Jat-dominated Haryana and Devendra Fadnavis, a Brahmin, as his counterpart in the Maratha fiefdom of Maharashtra. The overwhelming mandate that the BJP had won in these states in 2014 had given the party enough room to risk appointing chief ministers who owed their position not to their personal popularity or political influence in the state but to the faith that Modi and Shah had placed in them.

There is no denying that the success of this experiment with choosing chief ministers could have given a new paradigm to Indian politics where the continuance of a chief minister for a successive term is not incumbent on his caste or community or 바카라�confidence바카라� of the ruling party바카라�s central leadership or the absence of a credible Opposition but on his government바카라�s five-year performance alone. And, this is the other half of the story that unfolded in Jharkhand, which now seems set to reject the BJP and even send Das to the cleaners.

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Das바카라�s tenure as CM was marked by everything a voter doesn바카라�t want from a government. The BJP had, in 2014, come to power through an alliance with the AJSU. Over the past five years though, the AJSU often took potshots at Das while the chief minister바카라�s colleagues in the BJP frequently called him arrogant and autocratic. The voters too echoed this criticism while the government did little to reverse the perception.

Jharkhand witnessed 23 cases of alleged starvation deaths since 2014. A majority of these deaths occurred because the victims were denied of their PDS rations after they failed to either get an Aadhaar card or have their bank accounts opened for getting subsidies linked with Aadhaar. The Das government remained in abject denial of instances of starvation deaths.

The state, which has a huge BPL population engaged in MGNREGA for a paltry income, also failed to pay the promised wages to those employed under the scheme. The tribals, who must have felt slighted when an OBC leader was made the chief minister, were given more reasons to be unhappy with the state government. The land acquisition Act alienated the indigenous population from its lands and instead of compensating the tribals adequately, the government refused to acknowledge their grievances and instead harped about the land parcels it planned to give to big industrialists at a pittance.

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For Jharkhand바카라�s voter, the grievances with the Das government were many. Delayed payment of salaries to government employees, spurt in lynching of Muslims, Dalits and tribals by goons patronized by the ruling party (remember the sight of Jayant Sinha garlanding men accused of lynching a Muslim man?), acute water shortage and recurring power outages, growing unemployment 바카라� nearly every segment of the state바카라�s electorate had something to complain about against the Das government. The chief minister and his party, however, refused to acknowledge these ground realities allowing the Opposition enough opportunities to regain its lost political ground.

In the run up to the assembly polls, while the BJP over-estimated its support base because of its comprehensive victory in the state during summer바카라�s Lok Sabha polls, the Opposition recalibrated its strategy and built a political narrative that addressed concerns of the voters directly. Das relied on the oft-quoted 바카라�Modi magic바카라� and hoped that the party바카라�s nationalistic pitch on the Centre바카라�s decisions like abrogation of Article 370, construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and the recent Citizenship Amendment Act would help him win a renewed mandate. In doing so, he repeated the same mistake that Fadnavis and Khattar had already made in Maharashtra and Haryana, respectively, just two months back.

The Opposition, on the other hand, not just addressed local issues with gusto but also embraced the realpolitik essential for electoral comebacks. While the BJP allowed its old-time ally, AJSU, to walk away, Hemant Soren ensured that his JMM kept its alliance with the Congress party and Lalu Yadav바카라�s RJD intact. The Congress, wrecked by infighting and an exodus of its leaders to the BJP, too realized that it could no longer afford to play Big Brother to Soren and agreed to enter the electoral fray as a junior partner, contesting just 31 of the state바카라�s 81 assembly seats while leaving 45 seats for the JMM. The Soren-led mahagathbandhan also ensured that its constituents had a cohesive poll pitch and that its leaders did not contradict each other during rallies. Soren, on his part, took the responsibility of leading from the front as the alliance바카라�s CM face and campaigned extensively throughout the state, focusing particularly on the nearly three dozen assembly segments where tribals 바카라� the core votebank of the JMM 바카라� could swing the election. Along with state Congress leaders like Rameshwar Oraon and Irfan Ansari, Soren kept the alliance바카라�s attacks focused on failures of the Das government. Even when the BJP went gangbuster with its Hindutva pitch 바카라� Amit Shah promised a 바카라�sky high Ram Mandir in four months바카라�, Yogi Adityanath wondered 바카라�can votes for Irfan Ansari help build a Ram Mandir바카라� and Modi harped about the CAA 바카라� the mahagathbandhan refrained from a direct confrontation.

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Coming close on the heels of the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections and months ahead of the Delhi assembly polls, the Jharkhand result has shown that the BJP바카라�s cloak of electoral invincibility is slipping. It has also given the Opposition, especially the Congress, a revival mantra 바카라� address local issues, build a united resistance to the BJP and play to your strengths while keeping personal egos aside. As for the BJP, a rethink on the increasing centralization of power and decision-making along with huge doses of humility is crucial if it wants to return on the path of electoral victory.

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