As a new Kudmi leader rises in Jharkhand, parties taken by surprise, keep a watchful eye
The recently concluded Lok Sabha elections saw a marked shift in Jharkhand politics, with the state’s dominant Other Backward Class (OBC) Kudmi community shifting towards a new leader and setting the stage for an interesting battle in the Assembly polls later this year.
Once a favourite of the All Jharkhand Students Union Party (AJSUP), a BJP ally, Kudmis moved towards Jharkhand Bhasha Khatiyani Sangharsh Samiti (JBKSS) leader Jairam Mahato who, even before campaigning, had been pulling crowds over his stand in favour of implementing a state domicile policy that would the year 1932 as cut-off date for having proof of land ownership.
Mahato and the JBKSS contested eight seats where Kudmi voters play a big role. Since the JBKSS could not get its political party registered before the polls, all its candidates ran as Independents. Though none of them won, they polled a significant number of votes. Mahato himself in Giridih, as well as his party’s candidates in Ranchi and Hazaribagh, made deep inroads into the AJSUP’s Kudmi base. Apart from this, the party fielded Manoj Yadav in Koderma, Damodar Singh Hansda in Singhbhum, Eklaq Ansari in Dhanbad, Babylata Tudu in Dumka, and Deepak Gupta in Chatra.
In Giridih, the AJSU’s Chandra Prakash Choudhary polled 4.51 lakh votes, while Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) Mathura Prasad Mahato polled 3.7 lakh votes. Jairam came third with 3.47 lakh votes. He polled more votes than the other two in the Assembly segments of Gomia, where the AJSU’s Lambodar Mahato is the sitting MLA, and Dumri.
In Ranchi, where the BJP’s Sanjay Seth won, JBKSS’s student leader Devendra Nath Mahato polled 1.32 lakh votes, coming second in the Silli Assembly segment where the sitting MLA is AJSUP chief Sudesh Mahato. In Hazaribagh, which the BJP’s Manish Jaiswal bagged, JBKSS’s Sanjay Mehta polled a significant 1.57 lakh votes, with over a third of those votes coming from the Ramgarh Assembly segment that has a significant number of Kudmi voters. The Congress’s Jai Prakash Bhai Patel was counting on those votes but the JBKSS candidate damaged his prospects.
Kudmi electors account for more than 15% of voters in Jharkhand and their shift towards Jairam Mahato and the JBKSS is crucial as, according to experts, they can make or break several parties in at least 32-35 Assembly seats — including Silli, Ramgarh, Mandu, Gomia, Dumri and Ichagarh — where more than 75% of the voters are Kudmis.
At present, the AJSU has three MLAs, the BJP 24, and the INDIA bloc parties 47 legislators. The AJSU and the BJP decided to contest the last state elections separately due to differences but it returned to the NDA fold for the Lok Sabha elections. The rise of Jairam Mahato and the JBKSS poses a significant challenge to the NDA’s hopes of unseating the JMM-led INDIA alliance from power in the state.
Mahato told The Indian Express that since he could not get the JBKSS’s political arm Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha registered in time for the elections, several voters struggled to find the outfit’s candidates who ran as Independents under different symbols.
“We faced many problems as many of us were fighting with different symbols, our women and elderly voters had trouble finding their respective candidate’s symbol in the EVMs, due to which we lost some votes. We are meeting in New Delhi to sort this issue and to start preparing for the upcoming Assembly elections,” he said.
Mahato added that it would be “simplistic” to say that only Kudmi people voted for him in Giridih. However, he agreed that the community was the foundation of his support. Asked if Kudmi voters are looking for a new leader in the state, he said, “The Kudmi community has been oppressed for long. They are victims of displacement due to land acquisition. There is a long list of people who sacrificed their lives for the country and Jharkhand. Naturally, we have to work for their rights.”
With the Assembly elections due in less than five months, Mahato said his party was “systematically preparing” for it. “We got close to 50,000 votes in nine Assembly segments of different Lok Sabha constituencies recently. The 50,000 margin matters in Assembly elections. I think we have a good chance in these seats. Moreover, we will also fight in other seats where we got more than 20,000 votes,” he said.
A JMM leader said the results had come as a surprise. “Jairam Mahato consolidated Kudmi electors as well as Kurmis from Bihar who are settled across Jharkhand. Other OBC castes, including Kushwahas, also seem to have voted for him. He and his candidates took away at least 40% of the JMM’s vote base and 60% of the BJP's (in the community),” said the leader.
A state Congress leader said Jairam Mahato’s call for the rights of Adivasis and Moolnivasis was in line with the party’s views. Lohardaga MP Sukhdev Bhagat told The Indian Express, “Like us, Jairam too upheld the need to save the Constitution in his campaign. We are natural allies, unlike the NDA.”
But the BJP disagreed that Jairam Mahato hurt the NDA. Party spokesperson Binay Singh said, “There is a narrative that Jairam and his candidates took away the NDA’s votes, which is wrong. According to our estimates, it largely took JMM’s vote share.”
Singh said several political parties such as the JBKSS had emerged in Jharkhand in the last 23 years but all had fizzled out. “The AJSU and the BJP are natural allies and will continue together in the Assembly elections. Jairam’s emergence does not harm our prospects,” he added.
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