Eyeing win in Kolhan, BJP pegs hopes on 4 former CMs
Political analyst Rakesh Kumar said Champai Soren is the senior most Santhal tribal leader in the state and may impact seats with sizeable Santhal voters in Kolhan .
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)is counting on the reputation and influence of four former chief ministers of Jharkhand to help it do well in the Kolhan division of the state where it won none of the 14 assembly seats in 2019 (the rival Jharkhand Mukti Morcha led alliance won 13).
Polling will be held in all these 14 seats spread across three districts of West Singhbhum, East Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharsawan in the first phase on November 13. Jharkhand goes to polls in two phases on November 13 and 20.
In 2014 and 2009, the BJP won six seats in the region, but experts say the party lost its limited appeal in the region after Raghubar Das became chief minister in 2014 and decided to create a land bank of tribal land, a move that alienated the tribal population. With Das no more directly in politics, the party aims to win some seats in the region.
The BJP is banking heavily on senior tribal leader and former Jharkhand CM Champai Soren who shifted to BJP ending his 40-year association with the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on August 30. According to BJP leaders, the BJP and is counting on him to help it win back Kharsawan, Manoharpur, Chaibasa, Majhgaon, Potka and Ghatsila. “It is for this reason that the party has given ticket to him and his son, which is rare for the BJP,” a senior party leader said, asking not to be named.
Soren has been winning the Seraikela seat where he is contesting, since 1991, only losing to BJP’s Anant Ram Tudu in 2000. His son Babulal Soren is contesting from Ghatsila and protege Sona Ram Bodra from Kharsawan . Babulal Soren is pitted again state water resources minister and sitting JMM MLA Ramdas Soren. Bodra is locked in battle with sitting JMM MLA Dashrath Gagrai, who has won this seat twice in 2014 and 2019.
Another former CM Arjun Munda’s reputation is at stake in Potka where his wife Meera Munda is contesting against JMM’s sitting MLA Sanjib Sardar.
The political career of the first Independent MLA to become a CM in the country, Madhu Koda, is at stake in Jagannathpur where his wife Geeta Koda is taking on former Koda protege Sonaram Sinku , who is the Congress candidate. The Kodas are both now in the BJP.
The Jamshedpur (East) seat has emerged as the hottest seat in Kolhan with former Jharkhand CM and incumbent Odisha Governor Raghubar Das’s daughter-in-law Purnima Das Sahu locked in a direct battle with Congress candidate Dr Ajoy Kumar. This seat was considered a BJP bastion with Das winning it five times till he lost to Saryu Roy, who contested as an independent, in 2019. However, there are two rebel BJP candidates Shiv Shankar Singh and Rajkumar Singh, which has turned the contest interesting. “It is a direct fight between Purnima and Dr Ajoy Kumar but the key to the victory would be how much votes are cut away by BJP by its rebels and how Kumar can manage sabotage by his own partymen,” said a local BJP leader.
Political analyst Rakesh Kumar said Champai Soren is the senior most Santhal tribal leader in the state and may impact seats with sizeable Santhal voters in Kolhan .
“Kolhan has nine ST seats and four general seats and Champai Soren has some influence in all the nine tribal reserved seats,” Kumar added.
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