On the other hand, the JMM is shouldering much of the campaign responsibility as its INDIA bloc ally, the Congress, seems to have adopted a half-hearted approach with most of its top leaders yet to make an appearance on the ground.
With prominent Congress leaders largely absent from the campaign, top JMM leader Hemant Soren and star campaigner Kalpana Soren have taken the lead with whirlwind tours and back-to-back meetings for both JMM and Congress candidates across the state.
The Sorens have taken on the BJP almost entirely on their own with at least 40 election meetings until now as the Congress party’s on-the-ground presence has been limited.
Between 3 and 5 November, the Sorens held election meetings supporting Congress candidates in Daltonganj, Jamshedpur East, Jamshedpur West, Barhi, Hatia, Manika, Jagannathpur and Kolebira.
“Hemant Soren is the CM face in the INDIA bloc and also an established and popular leader among the public. People are eager to listen to Kalpana Soren as well,” said JMM spokesperson Tanuj Khatri to ThePrint. “That is why both leaders are campaigning in support of the candidates of the constituent parties along with JMM.”
According to political analysts, the burden of campaigning has fallen on the Sorens because the Congress doesn’t have a ground-level leader to influence voters.
“The Congress fights elections relying on others. If it fights on its own strategy, it makes several mistakes. The party’s organisational structure on the ground has also been weak. The party lacks a strategy to turn the campaign into a war,” political analyst Baijnath Mishra told The Print.
“Secondly, the Congress in Jharkhand does not have any ground-level leader or mass leader who can bind the crowd or change the course of the election winds. That is why Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren are trying their best to take the Congress boat across,” he added.
BJP ramping up efforts, Congress not so much
With the high-stakes assembly elections scheduled for 13 and 20 November, the BJP and JMM are ramping up efforts to fire up voters.
PM Modi has already visited Jharkhand thrice in the past month-and-a-half.
On 4 November, a day after Amit Shah released the BJP’s election manifesto, the party held two rallies with Modi in Garhwa and Chaibasa, where the PM criticised the JMM-Congress alliance for alleged corruption and unfulfilled promises.
The party had sounded the poll bugle as early as in September, when Amit Shah launched an 11-day Parivartan Yatra, which concluded on 2 October.
During this period, Shah, Nadda, several Union ministers and half a dozen chief ministers from other states held rallies and gatherings across Jharkhand, signaling the party’s serious intent to make significant inroads in the state.
On the other hand, only two central leaders of the Congress have held election meetings in the state.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge stepped in for the first time on 5 November with two rallies to support the party’s candidates in Mandu and Kanke.
At these rallies, Kharge alleged that Modi’s promises at his 4 November public meetings were all false. The Congress president also questioned the central government on tackling the issue of infiltrators, which PM Modi and BJP leaders frequently raise.
On the same day, AICC General Secretary Sachin Pilot addressed an election rally in Jamshedpur East, a closely watched seat where former MP and Congress candidate Ajay Kumar is pitted against Odisha Governor Raghubar Das’s daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahoo.
Pilot, along with Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate, also held a roadshow in Jamshedpur.
The Congress is contesting 30 seats in alliance with the JMM, RJD and CPI-ML alliance in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly. Of the 43 constituencies that vote in the first phase on 13 November, Congress candidates are in the fray on 16 seats.
The Congress had earlier released a list of 40 star campaigners, including former party president Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi. According to sources, Rahul Gandhi may visit Jharkhand on 8 November.
Despite the high stakes, the party’s campaign efforts so far lack the energy and aggression of the rival BJP.
Earlier, leaders like Jharkhand Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir, state president Keshav Mahto Kamlesh, former president Rajesh Thakur, former Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay participated in the nomination of party candidates and tried to turn the tide in Congress’s favour.
“This time the fight is tough and the challenge is difficult, but the strategy and campaign of the Congress are not in aggressive mode compared to the BJP and JMM,” a Congress functionary, who did not want to be identified, told the Print.
“The candidates are having to struggle a lot on their own. The eyes of the candidates are fixed on Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.”
Also Read: How Hemant Soren is making his prison stint a poll plank to attack BJP in tribal Jharkhand
Pressure on JMM-Congress alliance
The BJP’s intensive campaign led by the prime minister has increased pressure on the JMM-Congress alliance.
The party has deployed senior leaders strategically based on vote equations in key assembly constituencies.
Just a day before Modi’s 4 November rally, Amit Shah released the BJP’s election manifesto, the Sankalp Patra, and held three rallies across Jharkhand.
The BJP has also deployed senior leaders like Rajnath Singh, Yogi Adityanath and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to campaign for the party.
Chouhan is the BJP’s election in-charge in Jharkhand and Himanta Biswa Sarma is co-election in-charge. Both leaders have been camping in Jharkhand continuously for four months.
“PM Modi’s rallies in Garhwa and Chaibasa on 4 November have filled the workers in 23 seats in Palamu and the Kolhan regions with enthusiasm,” said Ravindra Kumar Ray, former MP and the BJP’s recently appointed working president in Jharkhand.
“Also, the public has looked up to Mr Modi’s campaign with great expectations. The NDA is definitely coming to power in Jharkhand. The condition of the Congress is going to be the worst,” he added.
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All eyes on Rahul Gandhi
With the Congress campaign fairly lacklustre so far, all eyes are now on Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul delivered a powerful speech on tribal identity, caste census, reservation, and constitutional protection at the ‘Samvidhan Samman Sammelan’ on 19 October.
Although it wasn’t an election programme, his participation in the event weeks ahead of the Assembly polls underscored the Congress party’s commitment to Jharkhand.
Although Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal and MP Gaurav Gogoi held discussions with Congress members in Ranchi on 1 November to energise the cadres, the party was slow to get off the blocks.
To begin with, its candidate list was delayed, which left them little time to prepare for the campaign. It only announced its Bokaro and Dhanbad candidates late on 28 October, even though the deadline for nominations was 29 October.
The INDIA bloc released its manifesto on 5 November. Kharge released the seven-point manifesto in the presence of the JMM’s Hemant Soren, senior RJD leader Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav and CPI-ML leader Subhendu Sen, underscoring the coalition’s unified stance for the state.
“The party is fighting the elections strategically and strongly. The BJP does less election campaigning and spreads more confusion,” said Jharkhand Pradesh Congress spokesperson Kishore Nath Shahdev. “Hemant Soren is one of the big leaders of our alliance. That is why in coordination, he is also campaigning for Congress candidates.”
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Holding onto seats
One of the biggest challenges facing the JMM and Congress is holding onto their existing seats and maintaining their vote share.
In the 2019 assembly elections, the Congress contested 31 seats in alliance with the JMM and the RJD, and won 16, a gain of nine seats compared to 2014. The JMM contested 43 seats and won 30.
The Congress’s vote share was 13.87 percent and the JMM’s vote share was 18.73 percent.
In 2020, the Congress benefited when two MLAs from Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM)—Pradeep Yadav and prominent tribal leader Bandhu Tirkey—joined the party after Marandi merged the JVM with the BJP. Tirkey is now a Congress working president.
In these elections, the Congress is contesting seven of Jharkhand’s 28 reserved tribal seats. The party faces the dual challenge of retaining its ground in both tribal areas and general seats.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress won two seats reserved for tribals—Lohardaga and Khunti—but lost five unreserved or general seats.
Analysts said the Congress can’t afford to slacken as the BJP, following the Lok Sabha results, has renewed its efforts to regain influence in Jharkhand’s tribal areas.
“The BJP has started sharpening its weapons here after the results of the Lok Sabha elections. Along with this, the BJP has left no stone unturned to regain its lost grip in tribal areas,” Mishra told ThePrint.
“The aggression and strategy with which it is fighting the elections indicate that it is focused on breaking the weak links of the ruling parties. This may be most difficult for the Congress.”
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)
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