Mahagathbandhan blown away as Modi Tsunami takes Jharkhand by storm

RANCHI: BJP defeated mahagathbandhan in Jharkhand riding high on the strong Narendra Modi wave and the national security narrative, coupled with the Centre’s welfare schemes. The NDA, comprising BJP and Ajsu-P, won 12 out of 14 seats, a feat that will give it the much-needed momentum ahead of the assembly elections scheduled later this year.
Jharkhand was the first state to see the emergence of a mahagathbandhan, consisting of Congress, JMM, JVM-P and RJD for the general election.BJP, on the other hand, forged an alliance with regional partner Ajsu-P to take on the grand alliance.
Of the 14 seats, BJP fought on 13 and sacrificed one of its sitting seats, Giridih, to its ally. Except Singhbhum and Rajmahal, which were won by Congress’s Geteta Koda and JMM’s Vijay Kumar Hansdak respectively, NDA secured the other 12 seats, matching the tally it had secured in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
It also played few more gambles which worked in its favour. In Khunti, Ranchi and Koderma, it benched its sitting MPs to replace with young faces. It replaced veterans Karia Munda and Ram Tahal Choudhary with Arjun Munda and Sanjay Seth in Khunti and Ranchi. Both the replacement candidates won.
In Koderma, BJP gave a ticket to RJD turncoat Annupurna Devi, sensing the growing anti-incumbency against its sitting MP Ravindra Rai. She defeated mahagathbandhan’s Babulal Marandi, JVM-P chief and the state’s first chief minister, by a record margin of over 4.5 lakh votes.
For BJP the biggest gain, however, came in Dumka where its candidate Sunil Soren unseated JMM patriarch and eight-time MP Shibu Soren. Despite losing in the past two Lok Sabha polls, BJP had reposed faith on Sunil who proved lucky in the third time.
The two Union ministers from Jharkhand — Jayant Sinha and Sudarshan Bhagat — also secured wins in their respective seats.
The road to success wasn’t an easy task for BJP in the tribal heartland. The party which gave Jharkhand its first stable government in 2014 since the birth of the state in 2000, was confronted with numerous challenges and brickbats due to many controversial and unpopular decisions taken by the Raghubar Das-led government. Decisions such as attempt to amend the age-old tenancy land laws, introduction of anti-conversion bill targeting Christians to prevent conversion of tribals, school mergers, among others — snowballed into widespread protests and tensions in the recent years. Many NDA leaders, including those from Ajsu-P, too, openly voiced their criticisms against some decisions by Das.
“The results have proven issues raised by mahagathbandhan didn’t matter to the voters,” BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said. “The trends also indicate that tribals aren’t against BJP or the policies of the state government. We offered sabka saath, sabka vikas through welfare schemes sponsored both by the Centre and the state. People have embraced Modi’s development,” he added.