RANCHI: BJP’s hopes of turning it around in Jharkhand after the assembly poll debacle by bringing in estranged friend Babulal Marandi back in its folds fell flat on Tuesday after the tribal leader’s Adivasi vote bank failed to win seats for the saffron camp in Dumka and Bermo. Toggling between the two constituencies, Marandi was holding at least a dozen pocket-sized rallies every day for three weeks.
BJP had strategically pressed Marandi, a tribal, in Dumka (an ST reserved seat) to campaign for Lois Marandi as it was looking to wrest it back from JMM which defeated the saffron party in 2019 when Hemant Soren bagged it along with Barhait.
Days ahead of the bypolls, both the camps of the ruling Mahagathbandhan and the BJP-led opposition threw FIRs at each other over claims and counter claims revolving around the saffron camp eyeing at “toppling the government after the bypoll results”.
Another reason for BJP to field Marandi to campaign from Dumka was because it was from here where he had defeated JMM stalwart Shibu Soren in a parliamentary election in the 90s. Later, the first chief minister of Jharkhand, also earned a spot in the central ministry in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet.
Over the years, Marandi emerged as one of the tallest and acceptable tribal faces in the state even though his party JVM-P, which he had formed after coming out of BJP, could never clinch power until it was merged with the saffron camp early this year.
After his ‘gharwapsi’, Marandi was immediately appointed as the leader of BJP’s legislative party and tasked with the job of consolidating the party’s outreach, mainly in 28 tribal seats.
For the bypolls, Marandi was personally overseeing the entire electioneering in Dumka, where he was camping for weeks to strike a chord with the Adivasi voters, his natural supporters.
However, BJP did not blame Marandi alone for the loss. State party president Deepak Prakash said, “In BJP, no single person fights the polls, but the entire party and its cadre contest. Compared to the last election, we fared well, mainly in Dumka where the victory margin has come down by over 50%. This indicates that the people are looking for a change.”
Citing figures, he added, “In Dumka, the loss margin is about 6,000 votes this time. In terms of votes, we got 73,524 this time against 67,819 last time. These are proofs enough of our increased base in Dumka.” Another leader added that BJP is looking at the outcome as a silver lining. “It was only because of Marandiji that tribals have started falling back on us,” he said, wishing anonymity.
Meanwhile, Congress dubbed Marandi as a lost warhorse. “He should stop dreaming about being a leader of BJP’s legislative party when he can’t ensure victory of two MLAs despite having a mammoth electioneering machine called the BJP. This proves that he is a fused bulb,” said Congress’s co-working president Rajesh Thakur.
Congress spokesperson Alok Dubey and Lal Kishorenath Shahdeo said that the victory is a befitting reply to Marandi and his party over their threats to “topple the government”.
“BJP pressed three former chief ministers, but the results have proven that they can no longer influence voters with threats and false propaganda,” they said.