5 factors that explain BJP’s Jharkhand defeat: Vote The huge gap between the NDA and INDIA bloc numbers in Jharkhand (56:22 seats) hides another number – that in terms of vote share, at 33.2%, the BJP that fought 68 seats was only marginally behind the JMM and Congress’s combined share of 39.02%, after putting up candidates in 75 seats. This meant that the BJP vote share remained almost the same as in 2019 (33.37%), while the JMM and Congress got more than five years ago (32.6%).
Here’s a look at five reasons why: 1. BJP banking on “infiltration”, ignoring ground-level Since assuming charge of Jharkhand elections as the BJP co-in-charge, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma went about building a narrative of alleged Bangladeshi infiltration in the Santhal Parganas area of the state. Other BJP leaders amplified the narrative, giving it the jargon of “love and land jihad”, by claiming that these “infiltrators” were marrying tribal women to take their assets, and further projecting a threat to “tribal identity”.
The message boiled down in the latter half of the BJP campaign to “Protecting roti, maati, beti (food, land and daughters)” of Rather than checking this, BJP leaders claimed, the ruling to have worked to some extent in the North Chotanagpur region – a majority of which is urban – with the BJP and its allies winning 14 of the 25 seats here. What the overall failure of the narrative also underlined was the BJP’s inability to focus on jobs and corruption, which were things being talked about on the ground.
An observer said: “The BJP had various issues it could have raised: lack of jobs, corruption allegations against Hemant Soren, money recovered from then minister Alamgir Alam, death of excise constable job aspirants during recruitment exams. Instead, it focused on infiltration, and all other issues were subsumed under it. There was no need for fear mongering around land grab, marriage of Adivasi 2.
The Jairam Mahato factor The scissors symbol of the rising Kudmi leader’s Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) party cut votes across constituencies, largely benefiting the JMM. The party most hurt by the JLKM’s rise, expectedly, was BJP ally All Jharkhand Students’ Union Party, which ended up with just one seat (while it won just two in 2019, that time it had contested alone).
AJSUP head Sudesh Mahato himself lost from Silli. In Jairam Mahato, who is just 29, many see an OBC leader of promise, who fills a gap that the AJSUP once promised to do. In a post on X, Sudesh Mahato wrote: “We respect the mandate… and congratulate Hemant Soren ji. We will review this election result within our party and NDA.” Also in Political Pulse | How BJP fared in aspirational districts in Maharashtra, Jharkhand 3.
Maiyya Samman Yojana and Kalpana Soren Women voters turned out in larger numbers than the men for voting in Jharkhand this time. As per Election Commission data, while 91.16 lakh women cast their votes, the number for men stood nearly 6 lakh behind, at 85.64 lakh. In terms of voting percentage, 70.46% of the women voters cast their ballot, while 65% of the men did. In the Lok Sabha elections held five months ago, where the NDA did well, the gap between women and men voters was much lesser – 87.11 lakh and 83.85 lakh, respectively.
Even the gap between how many women and men voters turned out was much lower too, 68.67% for women, and 63.79% for men. The surge in the gap in the Assembly polls was largely because many more women came out to vote this time than in the Lok Sabha elections – in absolute numbers, 7.3 lakh more women voted compared to 1.8 lakh more men. While the revision of the electoral rolls adding more voters hain toh safe hain” which was seen as propagating Read More | Tale of Jharkhand’s two Kudmi leaders: Jairam Mahato’s rise dents NDA, BJP ally Sudesh Mahto A senior Delhi-based BJP leader said that a meeting held at the party headquarters in the Capital on the Jharkhand results identified “ineffective election management” and “erroneous distribution” of tickets to incumbent MLAs in spite of their unpopularity as two prime reasons for the party’s poor performance.
The ticket distribution is believed to have been faulty in at least seven Assembly “We are in the process of assessing the results to see precisely what seats the BJP lost due to low vote margins,” a leader who did not wish to be named said. “There are many seats which the party appears to have lost due to its decision to field locally unpopular candidates or those who were facing anti-incumbency,” the leader added.