Jharkhand: The tribal state's political 'chess game'
Jharkhand will vote for the second and final phase of elections to the 81-member Assembly on Wednesday, in what has been one of the most fiercely-contested polls in the electoral politics of the state.
Barely 24-years old, Jharkhand has already seen 13 chief ministers in a virtual game of musical chairs, involving six leaders from the two main political players — the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the BJP. Along with these leaders from the two political parties was also a rare ‘Independent’ CM Madhu Koda, who remained in the position for almost two years.
In between, there were also three phases of President's rule in the state, known for its mineral-rich land and a large number of 'poor' population, mostly tribals.
Politics of ‘poor rich state’
More than 39 per cent of Jharkhand’s population, majority being tribals, lives below the poverty line. There are around 33 scheduled tribes in the state, according to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
As per the 2011 census, the number of STs was 86,45,042 of the total population of 3,29,88,134 in the state — which is 26.42 per cent and 8.3 per cent of the total ST population in the country.
At 14.7 per cent, Madhya Pradesh has the highest share of ST population in the country, followed by Maharashtra (10.1%), Odisha (9.2%), Rajasthan (8.8%) and Gujarat (8.5%).
In these elections, the BJP made “Bangladeshi Muslim/Rohingya infiltration in tribal areas” the central theme of its campaign.
Notably, five of the 13 Lok Sabha seats that the BJP lost in 2024 in Jharkhand were all ST-dominated. Addressing “infiltration concerns” seems to be also aimed at denting rival JMM-Congress-RJD key support base. As many as six of the seven leaders to occupy the Jharkhand CMO have been tribals.
Jharkhand and its seven CMs
BJP’s Raghubar Das, the only chief minister to complete an unbroken five years in the chair, was also the only non-tribal CM.
The other six have had tenures ranging between 10 days (JMM’s Shibu Soren) to four years and 35 days of Hemant Soren before he was arrested in an alleged land scam case.
Hemant Soren, who has completed around 137 days in office after his release, is the incumbent CM.
His father Shibu Soren, who is counted among tall leaders of the movement for a tribal state, occupied the chair three times. His first term in March 2005, however, ended in just 10 days after he failed to prove majority.
Jharkhand’s journey in 2000 started with BJP’s Babulal Marandi, a tribal leader with roots in RSS. Marandi was succeeded by BJP’s Arjun Munda, who technically is the longest-serving CM with tenures spanning across three terms. However, unlike Das, he never completed a five-year term.
JMM’s three CMs also include Champai Soren, who served as the Cabinet Minister in the second Hemant Soren government from 2019 to 2024. Now with the BJP, Champai was made the CM by the JMM after Hemant Soren was arrested.
Vananchal to Jharkhand
Reports suggest that the seed of tribal state Jharkhand was sown before India’s Independence, though it fructified in 2000.
In 1928, a separate state was demanded by Unnati Samaj, the political wing of the Christian Tribals Association, which also submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission to constitute a tribal state in eastern India.
In the 1952 General Election, Jaipal Singh Munda’s Jharkhand Party won three Lok Sabha seats and 32 Bihar Assembly seats. The Jharkhand Party memorandum to the States Reorganisation Commission for a separate state was, however, rejected.
In 1999, the BJP promised to form a separate ‘Vananchal’ if elected.
On November 15, 2000, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government created three new states — Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh — fulfilling long-standing regional demands. Comprising 18 districts from South Bihar, Jharkahnd was inaugurated on tribal leader Birsa Munda’s birth anniversary.
However, it also signified the collapse of the 55-year-old movement as “the decision was also a rejection of the demand of the people in the tribal heartland of Bihar for a Jharkhand state comprising 27 districts of Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh,” say experts.
Initially called ‘Vananchal’, the name was later changed to Jharkhand.
2024 polls
The BJP and the JMM have been the two dominant players in the state’s politics.
In 1998, the BJP won 12 of the 14 Jharkhand seats in the Lok Sabha. However, factionalism between Marandi and Arjun Munda, a former JMM leader who had joined the BJP, and challenges from the JMM, the RJD and Congress, led to rifts and weakening.
The emergence of Narendra Modi and the return of the BJP-led NDA in the Centre in 2014 saw the saffron party gain power in the state, giving its first non-tribal CM Raghubar Das. However, a non-tribal CM was also said to be the reason for the JMM-Congress combine sweeping the state and tribal Hemant Soren returning as the CM in the subsequent elections.
In 2024, Babulal Marandi, whose JVM-P contested various elections in Jharkhand until 2019, is back as BJP president and face.
Can BJP return?
The BJP believes it had sufficient ammunition to counter the multi-party ruling JMM-Congress-RJD ‘mahagathbandhan’ led by Hemant Soren, a leading tribal face in his own right, in the 2024 Assembly elections.
The focus has been “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh allegedly marrying tribal women to gain access to land, establish families and secure positions of influence in local governance in the tribal-dominated region” and alleged demographic shift in the state.
Tribal-dominated Jharkhand hosts 8.3 per cent of the total Scheduled Tribes population of the country.
But whether the demographic composition is really affected and whether there is a relationship between infiltration and declining numbers of STs in Jharkhand; the poll results will answer that question.
