Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das of the BJP is caught in a do-or-die battle in his constituency of Jamshedpur East. The appointment of Das as chief minister in a tribal-dominated state like Jharkhand was a political gamble by the BJP. To make matters worse, facing him is cabinet minister Saryu Roy, a BJP veteran with deep saffron connections. Roy, who is famous for his anti-corruption campaigns, was instrumental in the convictions of former chief ministers Lalu Prasad and Jagannath Mishra of Bihar and Madhu Koda of Jharkhand. Roy told THE WEEK that Das was his next target. “As I keep saying in my election rallies, Raghubar Das is actually Raghubar daag (blot),” said Roy. “Even the Modi detergent and Amit Shah laundry cannot save him this time.” Parties such as the JMM, RJD and the LJP have withdrawn their candidates from the Jamshedpur East constituency in Roy’s support.
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As of 12:30pm, Roy had managed to wrangle a thin lead of 700 votes, as Das looked to lose out.
Tribals constitute more than a quarter of the state’s population and 22 seats in the assembly are reserved for them. While Das managed to complete a full term, some of his policies invited the wrath of the state’s tribal population. For instance, the Das government tried to amend the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, which have been in place from the British period. The government wanted to remove the provision which mandated the consent of village councils for acquiring land for development work. But, the government had to put the move on hold because of the relentless opposition from the tribal population. The government was also forced to withdraw a bill to amend the Forest Rights Act.
In the present assembly, the BJP has 43 members, JMM 19, Congress eight, AJSU Party three, JVM(P) two, CPI(ML) Liberation one, MCC one and others two. Two MLAs Geeta Koda (Independent) and AJSU Party's Chandra Prakash Choudhary resigned after being elected to Lok Sabha.
In the exit polls, the ABP/CVoters has given 35 seats to the opposition alliance of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). It has given 32 seats to the ruling BJP, five to the AJSU Party and three to the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and six to others.
Jharkhand/Bihar Hindi news channel News-XI has given the BJP between 30 and 35 seats. It has given the JMM between 17 and 22 seats, the Congress between nine and 12, the AJSU Party between eight and 12 seats, and the JVM-P between four and six seats. Others have been given between eight and 10 seats by the channel.
-Inputs from Pradip Sagar
