How Jharkhand defied the BJP’s dominance

PEOPLE from India's margins — indeed, its original inhabitants, the adivasis of Jharkhand, have scripted a resounding victory for their identity and rights in the recently concluded state Assembly elections. A majority of the state's electorate was among the world's poorest people, bearing diverse tribal identities of the Mundas, Oraons and Santhals, combined with marginalised Hindu castes and religious minority Muslims.

This diverse electorate reshaped the political arena, bringing back to power a coalition, led by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and its Chief Minister Hemant Soren and its partners, the Indian National Congress, the RJD and the CPI(ML). The coalition won a decisive victory with 56 seats in the 81-member Assembly, with the JMM having the largest share of 34 seats. Acting in tandem, the coalition partners INC notched up 16 seats, the RJD four seats and the CPI(ML) two seats.

The big significance of this outcome has been noted in the ability of small people to stand up to the power of the national giants — the BJP, led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The deeper meaning of this electoral verdict lies in the intertwining of indigenous rights, democracy and development — they all came together to defeat a majoritarian religious-political campaign pitch of the BJP.

As an immediate political context, the ED had arrested Soren — then Chief Minister of the state — in January this year. He walked out of jail just a few months ahead of the elections. His party leader Champai Soren (and erstwhile Chief Minister) had been lured away by the BJP. Governance seemed to be at a near-standstill on the eve of the elections. The resource abundance of the BJP, its supreme command over the state apparatus and the long-held societal roots of the RSS meant that the incumbent JMM was barely in any shape to defend its claims to power.

In what was largely being anticipated by analysts and pollsters as a "close fight", an "issueless election", or even the setting in of anti-incumbency and corruption charges against Hemant Soren's government, these results have been truly unanticipated.

For one, they have put the ascendant BJP on a clear backfoot. Even more, the RSS has been left without a script in what has been its long-held community bastion. Its social and cultural agenda is carried on by front organisations, such as the Vikas Bharati, the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and the Ekal Vidyalayas.

This verdict has proven to be a confidence-booster for the INDIA bloc, especially as Hemant Soren gains stature within the coalition. He enjoys the respect and confidence of the Gandhis, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of the neighbouring state of West Bengal, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav.

So, what exactly worked for the JMM? What does this defeat mean for the BJP? And going ahead, what lessons can be drawn for other state elections and in reconfiguring national politics and India's democracy?

On what worked for the JMM: First of all, the JMM in alliance with the Congress has withstood a very divisive campaign hurled on to the people of the state, emphasising on ghuspaithiya having illegally entered districts in Jharkhand. The reference was to illegal Bangladeshi Muslims having infiltrated the land-locked Jharkhand. The BJP campaign presented district-wise data about the presence of ghuspaithiyas.

In further rumour-mongering and myth-making, there were claims that these infiltrators would grab the land of adivasis and take away their daughters. The adivasi attachment to their land and their jungles is a deep entanglement, protected as a community right under the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (and similar legislation for Santhal Pargana).

Many believed that a poor and illiterate electorate would fall prey to this type of rumour-mongering. It seems, in retrospect, that the pitching a of tribal identity at the forefront and its belief in the naturalist sarna religious and community rights proved to be an appropriate counter.

The centrepiece of the campaign, however, was the pitch for development with women at the forefront. Kalpana Soren, wife of Chief Minister Hemant, combined in herself the identity of a woman tribal leader and became the face of the Maiya Samman Yojana — income assistance of Rs 1,000 for over 50 lakh women. The rigorous implementation of the scheme with a broad-based and liberal inclusion of beneficiaries assured a massive reach and proved to be an income assurance for poor households.

In her campaign speeches, Kalpana called out for dignity to women, reassuring that this was not a mere dole. She urged the women to lead the formation of the abua raaj — indigenous rights of adivasis leading to their self-government. This, as a political idea, is deep-rooted in the adivasi political imaginary, reminiscent of Birsa Mundas’ ulgulaan and call for self-government against authoritarian colonial rule.

Kalpana Soren's combining of the democracy-development pitch was reminiscent of the 2019 state Assembly elections, when the pathalgadi movement of adivasis had mobilised them as defenders of the Indian Constitution, articulating their constitutional and democratic rights. Back then (in 2019), the adivasis were protesting against a dominant model of development and land acquisitions enforced by the then BJP government led by a non-adivasi Chief Minister, Raghubar Das.

The consistent defeat of the BJP in two state consecutive elections in Jharkhand has clear lessons that people can reject dominant models of development and force the state to adopt more bottom approaches that invest in the lives of the poor.

In terms of immediate political consequences, the INDIA bloc will see a greater focus on regional leaders and the Congress will need to take a few steps back. One-size-fits-all approaches that talk only of caste census, without any immediate assurance on what needs to be done for the social welfare of poor people, will not yield electoral dividends.

More imaginative ways of women-led development and pitching forth political leadership made up of diverse and indigenous identities has a deeper connect with the electorate.