Finally, Jharkhand has delivered a decisive mandate in its fourth Assembly election. It is also likely to create history by getting its first non-tribal chief minister.
Carved out of Bihar in 2000, Jharkhand has been witnessing coalition governments. There have been as many as nine chief ministers. But the 2014 Assembly election has delivered a verdict that promises an elected majority government to the resource-rich but extremely poor state.
According to the results on Tuesday evening, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its pre-poll alliance partner, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), crossed the majority mark of 41 in the 81-member Assembly. BJP won 37 seats and AJSU bagged five.
As for the chief ministerial candidate, the BJP parliamentary board will meet here on Wednesday afternoon to take a decision for the state unit, likely a divided house. What seems certain is that a non-tribal will finally get to become the next CM.
Raghubar Das, the 59-year-old former state minister, is the frontrunner after BJP's tribal face and three-time CM Arjun Munda suffered a shock defeat in the election. Party insiders attributed this to be the proof of the trenchant infighting in its ranks that led to the below-expected result, despite the frenetic election campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state.
In a tweet, Modi said the people of Jharkhand had voted for stability. BJP President Amit Shah credited the win to the performance of the Modi government at the Centre. The BJP had 18 seats in the outgoing Assembly. Many within the party, led by senior leader Yashwant Sinha, feel the state has voted on tribal versus non-tribal lines. A party source said it would be in the fitness of things for BJP to support a non-tribal chief minister as it received more of non-tribal votes.
BJP ally AJSU also suffered a jolt as its leader and former Jharkhand deputy CM, Sudesh Mahato, lost. Other heavyweights to lose were Jharkhand Vikas Morcha leader and first CM of Jharkhand, Babulal Marandi and Jai Bharat Samanta Party chief and former CM, Madhu Koda. Geeta, Koda's wife, retained her seat.
The Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won 19 seats. It had 18 seats in the outgoing Assembly. This indicated how BJP failed to make inroads into JMM's Santhal Parganas strongholds, despite unceasing work by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliate Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram over the years, including "ghar wapsi" campaigns to convert Christian tribals to Hinduism and recasting "adivasi" (literally original inhabitants) to "vanvasi" (forest dwellers).
The biggest loser in the elections was the Congress, which won six seats, a sharp drop from its 14 seats in 2009. Its alliance partners, Janata Parivar parties such as Janata Dal (United) and Rashtriya Janata Dal, couldn't win any.
The result could have been different if the Congress and JMM fought in a pre-poll alliance. The BJP led the vote share with 31 per cent, while JMM received 21 per cent and the Congress 10.4 per cent.
