A year after being arrested by the ED for alleged money laundering, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has orchestrated a successful return to power for his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in the 2024 Assembly elections. The JMM and Congress alliance has defied exit polls, leading in 51 seats at the time of publishing, while BJP-led NDA is ahead in 29 seats.
With Soren having run a campaign centred on tribal identity after getting out on bail, these numbers are a testament to Jharkhand's politics of identity and the strength of the Adivasi vote in the State.
The BJP had spared no expense in campaigning in Jharkhand, with live rallies from both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. The party brought in its ''illegal immigrant specialist'' Himanta Biswa Sarma from Assam to lead its attacks on the Soren government for letting in "infiltrators" from Bangladesh. Jharkhand's 'maati, beti and roti' (land, daughter and bread) were in danger, the BJP had said in rallies, adding that it was the "infiltrators" who were grabbing the jal,zameen and jungle from the Indigenous people of Jharkhand. This came to the fore in an election ad last week depicting Muslims barging into a Hindu home and taking it over. The Election Commission had notified the BJP to take down the ad.
JMM's campaign strategy on welfare schemes, especially the Mukhyamantri Maiya Samman Yojana, and the Adivasi asmita (tribal pride) narrative, appears to have paid off. The Maiya Samman Yojana gives eligible women beneficiaries Rs 1,000 monthly.
While in the lead-up to the election, Soren saw major defections from the party, including his sister Sita Soren and former CM Champai Soren, the setback appears to be temporary.
For the BJP, Jharkhand was always going to be a complex fight. Though the party did well in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, it lost all five tribal-dominated seats, flagging issues with Adivasi voters. The BJP sought to rebuild this base by highlighting issues like illegal immigration and alleged demographic shifts in the Santhal Pargana region. It also countered criticism by championing President Draupadi Murmu's tribal identity.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) appears to have successfully leveraged his Adivasi background to rally tribal support despite controversies surrounding his leadership. For the BJP, regaining its foothold in Jharkhand's tribal belts was crucial to reversing perceptions of declining influence among indigenous communities.
In Outlook's November 21, 2024, issue, Cry Freedom, Md Asghar Khan profiled Hemant Soren's new avatar while also highlighting how the BJP's "outsider" politics affected Jharkhand.
Outlook's December 1, 2024 issue Who is the Outsider? also looked into the politics in Jharkhand.
