The victory of the Congress is attributed to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha not fielding its candidate as a precursor to the move for formation of an alliance on the lines of Bihar. More than the Congress, it is the JMM leadership that is feeling elated as the result simply reinforces their 2014 stand for forging an alliance during the assembly election which was rejected by the Congress high command at the behest of the state leaders.

Congress’s Sukhdeo Bhagat got a total of 73,859 votes, while AJSU’s Neeru Shanti Bhagat stood second with 50,571 votes and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha’s Bandhu Tirkey got 16,951 votes. The assembly segment has nearly 21 per cent Muslim population. Congress victory is seen as the outright rejection of the BJP. In 2014, Lohardaga was won by AJSU’s Kamal Kishore Bhagat, who was later convicted in a 1993 extortion case in June this year and sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment. The JMM sources assert that if the Congress high command would have listened to their pleas, then Jharkhand should have earned the credit for evolving the first ever mechanism to defeat the invincible BJP.

JMM working president Hemant Soren son of JMM chief Shibu Soren remarked; “We have decided not to field candidate to keep the secular forces intact, the Congress didn’t act as per expectations”. Nevertheless the rout of BJP and its allies in Bihar was undoubtedly primarily responsible for creating ripples in Jharkhand where the NDA came to power in 2014. Incidentally the Lohardaga victory came a month after Nitish led Mahagathbandhan coming to power despite intensive campaign by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. No doubt JMM’s decision has set the ball of a possible revival of the UPA in Jharkhand that was tattered in 2014 assembly polls wherein the JMM, the Congress, the RJD had contested separately.

No doubt the result manifests deep resentment of the people towards the BJP rule, it is primarily a mandate against Das government’s move to hand over the state on platter to the corporate sector. Not only the big business houses have lined up to acquire precious land in Jharkhand for constructing housing complexes and setting up their trading shops, they are also vying to grab contracts and construction works.

Tribals who have been skeptical of the BJP game plans are in fact scared of the moves of the Das government. Already at the fringe they are worried of further being pushed outside the periphery. The BJP leaders mostly comprising the non-adivasis are worried that this sense of alienation amongst them would lead to polarisation of the politics, which would eventually not be in the interest of the party.

In the victory of the Congress they also view the first ever sign of revival of the Congress. But for them the only solace is the state Congress is badly divided on individual level. The Congress in fact has never been a united house. A senior Congress leader confided a Congressman is the worst enemy of another Congressman. However some state BJP leaders hold the view that instead of depending too much on saffron programme, the party and government should work for development. These leaders are also apprehensive of the recent election trends. The BJP has lost parliamentary byelections in Madhya Pradesh (Ratlam) and Telangana (Warangal). The huge margin of votes at Lohardaga is a warning for the BJP. No doubt it indicated the waning support base of the BJP and its allies in Jharkhand.

Modi and Shah during the 2014 assembly elections had assured to wipe out the crime syndicate from the state. But it still continues to rule. Jharkhand has emerged as the most favoured place for the human traffickers. Girls and boys are regularly being smuggled but the government has not initiated any significant step to check it. The police administration has proved ineffective and inefficient in cracking its whip on them. The Maoist rehabilitation policy is not yielding fruitful results due to large-scale corruption in the police department. Report underlines that while tribal youths are not getting proper employment, no facilities are being created for quality higher education.

Recently the Jharkhand Legal Services Authority launched Protection, Conservation of Rights of Tribals to safeguard the interests of indigenous people and ensure that they have a recourse to legal remedies. 'Often, people at the grassroots level do not get the benefits of welfare schemes due to lack of awareness. This makes their implementation difficult. Thus, we need to educate tribals about their rights,' observed the Jhalsa executive chairman and Jharkhand High Court justice D.N. Patel. In this backdrop the judiciary has taken the initiative to ensure that poor and ignorant tribals received the benefits of various government welfare schemes.

The reign of criminal terror could be gauged from the simple fact that senior Congress leader and businessman Prahlad Prasad, who had raised his voice against the pollution caused by coal dust in Jharkhand, was recently shot dead by unidentified assailants in Chandwa. He has spearheading agitation against the pollution caused by coal dust since September last year.
Nevertheless to expand the organization and also reach out to the tribals the Jharkhand BJP would wet up 170 new block units in Jharkhand. AS directed by Amit Shah the elected people's representatives would go out to the people directly and make them aware of the achievements of its Central and state governments. The leaders lamented that the coordination between party and government was quite weak and the chief minister must reach out to the party. (IPA Service)