Jharkhand Elections: BJP banks on jobs, demography; JMM on pride, women...

RANCHI: With the deadline for nomination of candidates ending on Tuesday, political parties are now shifting their focus towards extensive campaigning as the first phase of voting is just a fortnight away. While the BJP is focusing on ‘Maati, beti and roti’, JMM is relying on Jharkhandi Pride and ‘Insider vs Outsider’ this time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address two election rallies in Garhwa and Chaibasa on November 4 covering around 20 assembly constituencies. BJP sources told ET that PM Modi will address six rallies in six parts covering the entire state. Union Home minister Amit Shah will also visit Ranchi on November 2 and will address three rallies on November 3 to start his Jharkhand campaign. Other senior leaders too will start their campaign post Diwali.

‘Maati, beti and roti’ is BJP’s main campaign theme. In ‘Maati and Beti’, it covers the demographic change among tribals. “This is happening for the real. The infiltrators from Bangladesh are marrying tribal women to get land and political power through them. The Hemant Soren government has left it unchecked due to vote bank politics,” Shivpujan Pathak, BJP’s Jharkhand media-in-charge, told ET.


Under the ‘roti’ theme, the party is raising the issue of unemployment and jobs highlighting the exam paper leaks during the current government’s term. “Hemant Soren promised five lakh jobs every year. But what it delivered was paper leaks in all recruitment examinations of the state,” Pathak adds. The focus of JMM and allies is on ‘Roti, kapda aur makaan’. The JMM leaders talk about having delivered on all three fronts in the last five years.

For Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, the Maiyan Samman scheme through which the government has reached out to 57 lakh women (as claimed by JMM leaders) above 18 years is at the centre of the campaign. “We have also done loan waiver for farmers and waived the pending electricity bills of 40 lakh families of the state,” Supriyo Bhattacharya, JMM general secretary, told ET.

Soren is also trying to build a narrative of ‘Outsiders Vs Natives’ terming the BJP as outsider and presenting himself as the leader who is committed to Jharkhandi Pride and who works for the natives of the state. He doesn’t forget to talk about the Sarna Code and ‘Khatiyan’ to decide who are the real inhabitants of the state at all his meetings.

Lately, he has also started responding to BJP’s allegation of infiltration. On Monday, during his rallies, Soren termed these infiltrations as a failure of the NDA government at the Centre as border security is in the hands of the central government.