Marandi has already completed the first phase of Nyaya Yatra and is getting ready to launch the second phase by the end of March. During his first phase of Nyaya Yatra Marandi toured different parts of Santhal Pargana region, a pre dominant tribal belt and apprised them of BJP's tactics to 'undermine the electoral and democratic system' in the country. He would take out Nyay Yatra in six phases across the state to educate people. Through Yatra the JVM will expose the BJP, which always talks about high principles and moral values.

Enthused with the peoples’ response during the first phase of six-days Nyaya Yatra which commenced on 9 from Godda and culminated in Bokaro, Marandi is toying with the idea to confront with the Raghubar Das government in a more assertive manner. Yet another reason which has irked Marandi is hijacking of his domicile policy by the Raghubar Das government. Marandi intends to use his Yatra to unmask the anti-tribal face of the BJP. His choosing Santhal Pargana to launch the agitation is quite significant.

The public appeal of Marandi could be gauged from the simple fact that even in the backdrop of the BJP going to assembly elections on the name and charisma of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the JVM could manage to win eight seats. This was certainly not a mean achievement. What is significant for Marandi is, he enjoys support of adivasis and non-adivasis alike. Marandi has lot of friends in BJP and RSS. Recently Uma Bharati had strongly pleaded with Rajnath Singh for re-inducting him in the party. Undeniably a number of prominent faces of the BJP would not savour this.

Yet another reason for BJP engineering defeat in the JVM was to show the right place to its pre-election ally AJSU which had won five seats. AJSU is perceived as a students’ body of the tribals, which is not politically correct. In fact it is a conglomerate of all types of people residing in Jharkhand. Nevertheless the BJP was scared of its bargaining prowess. The BJP did not intend to allow space to the AJSU to grow. Its growth would have not only maginalised the ABVP it would have also made a dent in the support base of the RSS. It would have been denied of the new crop of youth cadres.

With the chief of the AJSU Sudesh Mahato having already served as the deputy chief minister under the previous government headed by the BJP leader Arjun Munda, the BJP government was under pressure to give him the same office. But the BJP leadership was not agreeable to this proposition. This would have boosted the image of Mahato and his AJSU in the peoples’ eyes, detrimental to the BJP’s interest.

With six JVM legislators defecting to BJP while it has acquired majority, increasing the ruling party's strength from 37 to 43 in the 82-member House, it has weakened the AJSU and turned it politically irrelevant. Incidentally the BJP leadership went for expansion of the cabinet only after these six legislators joined the party. Before that all the pleas and arguments of the AJSU were conveniently ignored by the party central leadership. Ironically, the BJP had run its election campaign promising to end Jharkhand’s history of political instability. Das clearly does not trust the AJSU, whose leader Sudesh Mahto enjoys a good rapport with Das’s rival Arjun Munda. Raghubar Das, after taking over as Chief Minister on December 28 had sworn in only four other Cabinet Ministers with him. He has not expanded his cabinet since then though seven cabinet berths are vacant. It is said that BJP admitting Hatia’s JVM legislator Navin Jaiswal has already strained the relations of the AJSU with BJP. Jaiswal just before the elections left the AJSU and contested on JVM ticket. Significantly the BJP had denied a ticket to Ganesh Ganjhu, a member then, citing his left wing extremist connections. Ganjhu is the brother of banned LWE organisation TSPC’s supremo Brajesh Ganjhu and is considered to have a significant say in the running of the organisation. Now he is respected member of the BJP. Unfortunately the BJP is perpetuating and practicising the same politics which it had vowed to end during its electioneering. Political allies in Jharkhand are notoriously unpredictable and have toppled several governments in the past. The BJP has in fact also been wooing Congress MLAs ever since it formed government in December 2014.

Marandi’s Nyaya Yatra also focuses on the BJP government denying jobs to the adivasis and moolvasis. Marandi alleges that the government was undertaking recruitment process without announcing the domicile policy as a result of which the youth of the state, the adivasi and moolvasis were being denied jobs as outsiders are being recruited. For adivasis of Jharkhand who have been agitating against the Land Acquisition Bill as it was anti-farmer, anti-dalit, it is a do or die situation. Extending support to Anna Hazare, the Adivasis in Jamshedpur also staged dharna in protest against the Centre's ordinance on Land Acquisition and for formation of the Jan Lokpal Bill. Hundreds of tribals including women laced with bows and arrows assembled in front of the East Singhbhum district headquarter under the banner of Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Mahasabha and staged sit-in demanding immediate withdrawal of the ordinance.

The JVM leaders also alleged that while the BJP talks of zero tolerance for corruption but the fact is it has made transfer and posting of officials its main business. Das government has been adopting double standard. No doubt Marandi lost his MLAs, but the BJP government lost the goodwill and credibility.

With the elections to panchayats scheduled in November, Marandi intends to use it to reach out to the tribals in the interior of the state and pit them against the BJP. But the stakes are quite high and tough for him as this adivasi vote bank has been also the mainstay of the JMM, which is in fact acknowledged as having strong tribal support. Nevertheless on his part Marandi would like to project the panchayat elections as people’s verdict on the performance of the BJP government. (IPA Service)