In the past five days since nominations began, key leaders have been dispatched to Jharkhand, including Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who is in charge of Jharkhand, and Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram from Odisha.
Two Jharkhand ministers—Sanjay Seth and Annapurna Devi—have also been pressed to mollify the rebels by any means necessary as the BJP looks to counter the perception that its influence has weakened after the setback in the Lok Sabha elections.
“The party is careful this time not to allow a split in the anti-incumbency vote against the government. There is huge anger against the government and if it’s split, the JMM will benefit,” BJP leader Nilkanth Munda told ThePrint.
“That is why the party is reaching out to every leader who is annoyed and contesting the polls to convince them to forgo their smaller interest for the bigger task of removing the Hemant Soren government.”
Home visits & organisational post offers
The BJP’s decision to give tickets to former chief minister and ex-JMM leader Champai Soren and his son Babulal, Odisha Governor and former chief minister Raghubar Das’s daughter-in-law, and former chief minister Arjun Munda’s wife Meera Munda has left several party leaders miffed.
They argue that outsiders have been favoured by the top leadership over committed party workers in the selection of candidates for the polls, which will be held in two phases on 13 November and 20 November.
To placate former state president Ravindra Rai, who had been denied a ticket, the BJP appointed him the state party unit’s working president midway through the election campaign. The move raised eyebrows in Jharkhand as Babulal Marandi was already head of the party’s state unit.
Rai was the MP for Koderma from 2014 to 2019 but was denied a ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. This time, he was seeking tickets from three constituencies, including Dhanwar—where Marandi is contesting.
Rumours surfaced last week that Rai was considering switching to the JMM, prompting Chouhan and Sarma to visit him at home to mollify him with the significant organisational post in the middle of the election.
The BJP is hoping to tap Rai’s support base in the Bhumihar community in the politically significant Dhanwar constituency, where he won in 2000 and 2005.
Rai lost to the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) (JVM (P))—Marandi’s party which later merged with the BJP—n 2009 while Marandi lost his seat in 2014 to the CPI(ML) Liberation’s Rajkumar Yadav.
“Marandi won this seat as JVM president in the 2019 assembly poll. Since it’s a hot seat as Marandi is contesting as the tribal face of the BJP, placating Rai, who came from the Bhumihar community, was necessary. Rai won this seat in the past so he has his own influence,” a BJP functionary from Jharkhand told ThePrint.
“After feedback from Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Himanta Biswa Sarma, he was given an organisational post,” he added.
The BJP’s decision to field the relatives of four former chief ministers—Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda, Champai Soren and Raghubar Das—has also sparked dissent within the party, with some leaders switching sides to the JMM and others standing as Independent candidates.
Facing accusations of dynastic politics in the party, the BJP is making a concerted effort to placate these leaders who felt sidelined with personal visits by senior leaders.
One example is the high-profile Jameshdpur East constituency, where Raghubar Das’s daughter-in-law, Poornima Sahu, is contesting the election as a BJP candidate.
Among those who had sought the ticket was Amarpreet Kale, a former BJP member who the party expelled five years ago for anti-party activities.
Sahu offered Kale an olive branch by visiting his residence personally to restrict any damage to the Jameshdpur East seat. The party has offered him the state unit spokesperson’s post to prevent any backlash and bolster Sahu’s position in the election.
The BJP also succeeded in quelling rebellion in the key Potka seat, where Meera Munda is contesting. Three-time former Potka MLA Maneka Sardar resigned from the party when she was passed over for Meera Munda in the first list of BJP candidates.
Not only did Arjun Munda meet Sardar to secure her support but other senior leaders also persuaded her to campaign for the party. She was convinced after a call was arranged with Chouhan and Marandi.
Sarma and former Jharkhand BJP president Deepak Prakash visited another rebel, Kamlesh Rai, who had announced plans to contest against the BJP candidate from the Kanke seat. Rai then assured Sarma that he would withdraw.
“Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has convinced me to focus on the bigger goal to replace the Hemant Soren government as it’s not the time to divide the BJP’s strength but to fight Hemant Soren collectively. After his assurance of protecting my interest, I have assured them that I will not contest the poll,” Rai told ThePrint.
‘Won’t budge despite pressure from BJP leaders’
However, the BJP hasn’t succeeded in bringing all the rebels around.
A BJP rebel in the Gumla constituency, Mishir Kujur, for instance, refused to budge from his decision to contest as an Independent despite the efforts of Sarma, who is co-in-charge of Jharkhand, as well as Union minister Jual Oram from Odisha.
“I will not budge despite pressure from senior BJP leaders. The people of the constituency have asked me to contest. I was number one in the survey but the party did not field me. Now the time is over for manoeuvring,” Kujur told ThePrint.
As part of the BJP’s efforts to stamp out rebellion in the ranks, national vice-president and Jharkhand organisational in-charge Laxmikant Bajpai met Raj Paliwar, a rebel in the Madhupur constituency who had openly criticised the party over ticket distribution in a Facebook post last week.
He said real party workers were ignored and tickets were awarded to those with financial power. Paliwar—who won the assembly polls in 2009 and 2014 and was a minister in the Raghubar Das government—refused to budge from his decision to contest.
But he kept the door open for reconciliation by assuring them he would reconsider his discussion with Bajpai.
While the BJP succeeded in placating former party president Ravindra Rai in Marandi’s constituency, another rebel and close Marandi associate, Niranjan Rai, has announced plans to contest the poll as an Independent from the seat.
Earlier, the BJP had deputed senior leaders Bajpai and Nishikant Dubey to convince him to withdraw but they didn’t succeed. Senior party leaders are still planning to visit him again at his home to make another effort to convince him.
“Many aspirants were assured their interests would be accommodated when the government formed. A few were accommodated instantly and a few were compensated later,” said a BJP leader involved in managing the rebellion.
“The party can’t risk losing a seat by a few hundred votes. That is why every leader who knows or has relations with rebels has been pressed to support the party either through emotional therapy or a promising post.”
Leveraging its potential
The BJP is determined to leverage its potential in Jharkhand after it secured a lead in 51 assembly seats during the Lok Sabha elections, but the JMM isn’t giving up without a fight.
The JMM accused Dubey of offering a key poll proposer of Hemant Soren, Mandal Murmu, an assembly ticket in a bid to convince him to switch sides.
Murmu—who is a descendant of the 19th century tribal freedom fighters Sidho and Kanhu Murmu—was allegedly on his way to meet BJP leaders in Ranchi Sunday when police stopped his car and detained him.
The JMM alleges that the BJP had abducted Murmu because it wanted to poach him and that election officers and senior police officers were conspiring with the BJP to hurt Soren’s chances in the polls.
The BJP met election officials and asked the JMM to prove that it was behind Murmu’s abduction.
The BJP is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to win back party rebels as it has suffered significant setbacks in the past because of internal rebellion in Jharkhand.
In 2019, the BJP lost many seats due to a rebellion in the ranks, which pushed it to suspend more than 20 leaders from the party. The most prominent rebel was Saryu Rai, who defeated the sitting chief minister, Raghubar Das, in 2019.
The party lost the seats because it chose to fight on its own after negotiations for an alliance with the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) failed. The AJSU damaged the BJP in four constituencies and Babulal Marandi’s JVM damaged the BJP in three assembly seats.
The party is now managing the rebellions in each seat down to the last detail and is working to consolidate the anti-incumbency sentiment rather than allow opposition votes to split.
It has also accommodated demands by Sudesh Mahto’s AJSU for 10 seats and has even conceded two assembly seats to the JD(U) and one to the LJP to prevent vote-splitting.
In the last assembly elections in Jharkhand, the victory margin in about 10 seats was less than 5,000 votes while the average margin in them was 2,349 votes. These seats were Deoghar, Godda, Koderma, Simdega, Nala, Jama, Mandhu, Baghmara and Jarmundi.
The BJP is drawing from its experience in Haryana where a split in the opposition votes between the Congress, AAP and many independent candidates helped it win the assembly elections.
Taking a cue from Haryana, the BJP has dispatched senior leaders to manage the rebellion and prevent a split in the anti-incumbency vote.
“Our biggest loss was in the Kolhan belt in 2019. This time, Marandi is in the BJP and Champai Soren is in the party. There was rebellion on six to seven seats in Kolhan but we managed to reduce it to two. In a few days, we are hopeful, we will get success on another two seats,” said a BJP leader.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
Also read: Jharkhand BJP poll tickets spark anger, defections to JMM. ‘Outsiders picked over committed leaders’