The ruling JMM-led alliance and BJP are engaged in a fierce battle in Jharkhand and political observers believe that it will be a close contest with results going either way. BJP’s superior election management gives it an edge
The voting for the 38 constituencies in the second and last phase of 81-member Jharkhand Assembly begins Wednesday morning. Chief Minister Hemant Soren, his wife Kalpana Soren, former BJP Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, LoP in State Assembly Amar Kumar Bouri, Assembly Speaker Ravindra Mahto, former Deputy CM Sudesh Mahto, Ministers – Baby Devi, Irfan Ansari, Deepika Pandey Singh, Hafizul Hasan, former minister Louis Marandi, Sita Soren are some of the big guns from state politics who are in the fray in the second phase of polling. According to media reports, Jharkhand is heading for a close contest and it is difficult to make any predictions.
The 2nd phase and statistics
Of the 38 seats going to polls tomorrow, while 18 seats each are in Santhal and North Chotanagpur division, two seats lie in the Ranchi district. According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), 528 candidates are in the fray in this phase including 55 women. Interestingly, while 127 candidates are multi-millionaires, 148 of these have criminal cases. According to ADR (Association for Democratic Reforms), 122 of these candidates are facing serious criminal charges like murder, kidnapping etc. About 1.23 crore people are the eligible voters in this phase.
The constituencies
The second phase differs from the first phase in terms of the high number of Unreserved Seats (or General Seats) going to polls. Of the total 38 seats, 27 are Unreserved Seats, eight are reserved for STs and three for SCs. In terms of voters, Bokaro constituency has the highest number of voters – about 5.84 lakhs while Littipara, a reserved seat, has the least 2.17 lakh votes.Geographically, Mandu , spread over 1327 square kms is the largest constituency while Jharia is the smallest with just 70 square kms of area.
Star campaigners
CM Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana Soren did the maximum public meetings in the Jharkhand elections. According to some media reports, the duo attended more than 100 public rallies each since the declaration of the elections. Among the JMM allies, while Tejashwi Yadav of RJD did 23 rallies despite seven RJD candidates in the fray, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi did eight rallies.
Among the BJP, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended six rallies and one road show, Home Minister Amit Shah addressed 16 rallies. Meanwhile, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma were part of more than 50 public rallies each and gave the required momentum to the BJP campaign in the state. Interestingly, despite having two candidates in the fray, the JD(U) President and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not campaign in Jharkhand. JD(U) is contesting from Jamshedpur West and Tamar (Ranchi). RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav attended one rally in Koderma.
Key Issues
For BJP, the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrations and corruption by the JMM government is the biggest election issue. All the BJP star campaigners spent considerable time in their speeches on these two topics and promised to throw out all the illegal migrants out of the state on coming to power.
For JMM and allies, BJP is more interested in dividing the society in the name of religion than doing anything constructive. The party has also linked CM Soren’s arrest and his jail term with the pride of tribals. “CM Soren was arrested and humiliated only because he is a tribal,” the JMM leaders reiterated this in all their public interactions.
In the 2019 elections, while JMM had won the maximum 29 seats, BJP won 25 seats and Congress 18. The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance formed the government with Hemant Soren as the Chief Minister.