New Delhi: It was very clear from day one that the contest on Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur East seat was not between the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led grand alliance, but between the official BJP and the unofficial BJP. While the official candidate was incumbent chief minister Raghubar Das, the unofficial one was his former cabinet colleague and BJP rebel Saryu Roy.
The real question was whether the BJP rebel would be able to make a dent in the BJP candidate’s stronghold. There were two primary issues: Das had been representing the constituency for five terms and never lost an election there since he was first elected in 1995, and Roy had to change his constituency to contest against Das, from his traditional Jamshedpur West to Jamshedpur East.
The results show that the BJP rebel was not only able to gain ground Jamshedpur East, but also in West as the BJP lost both seats despite the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, home minister Amit Shah and BJP national working president J.P. Nadda. Roy defeated Das on his traditional seat by a margin of over 15,000 votes. Not only that, the BJP also lost the neighbouring seat by a margin of 22,000 votes. On this assembly seat, BJP’s Devendra Singh was defeated by Congress nominee Banna Gupta.
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Roy decided to contest as an independent candidate after he was denied a ticket by the BJP. Initially, he was planning to contest from both seats, but he eventually decided to contest only from East seat in order “to teach Das a lesson” as he thought that the former chief minister was responsible for him not getting a ticket.
Observers believe that there are several reasons which led to the BJP’s defeat in both constituencies, especially in the East. First and foremost, Das was unable to counter the attack Roy launched from day one, Jamshedpur-based senior journalist B. Sridhar told The Wire. According to him, Das was unable to counter the onslaught unleashed against him and this was multiplied by the overall anti-incumbency wave witnessed against the former chief minister across the state.
Addressing a press conference just after filing his nomination, Roy called the incumbent chief minister ‘Raghubar Dagh’ (tainted) instead of ‘Raghubar Das’. He had claimed that Das is so corrupt that even Modi and Shah could not help improve his image. Later, in an interview, Roy told NDTV that he has all the evidence to prove the chief minister’s involvement in an illegal mining scam in the state. Though Das refuted all the allegations made by his former cabinet colleague and alleged that Roy is indulging in politics of blackmail, he was never able to debunk the corruption narrative.
Saryu Roy speaking to the media during vote counting on Monday. Photo: PTI
Meanwhile, Roy was also able to galvanise votes of the urban poor by promising them land titles for where they have living for decades. According to an ANI report, during the campaign Roy attacked Das for not fulfilling the promise of giving land rights to the people. “It was he (Das) who said that 86 colonies are either on the government or Tata’s land and he will get them the ownership claim. When Tata’s lease was renewed in 2005, he excluded these colonies spread in 1,700 acres of land. When he became the CM, he took a U-turn and said it was never on his agenda,” he said.
During the campaign, time and again Roy raised the unresolved issue of over 86 unauthorised colonies under the Jamshedpur East constituency and promised that as long as he is there, no one will be evicted. This helped him consolidate his votes in a big way. The residents of 86 unauthorised colonies constitute the majority of voters in Jamshedpur East, and have been struggling to get land rights for the past 20 years.
What also worked for Roy is consolidation of the anti-Raghubar Das camp in his favour. As reported by The Wire earlier, despite being in alliance with the Congress and the party fielding a prominent candidate, Gourav Vallabh, JMM had lent its support to the BJP rebel. JMM chief and chief ministerial face of the opposition Hemant Soren early in the campaign had said, “Saryu Roy is an honest leader and he has challenged chief minister Raghubar Das, who is the epitome of corruption. We, in the opposition, should come in his support.” It is widely believed that the JMM did so in order to use the BJP rebel’s anti-Das stance to mobilise people’s support in favour of opposition parties, which seems to have worked well.
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Moreover, it is also being said that senior BJP leader and former state chief minister Arjun Munda’s supporters in Jamshedpur worked against Das. There are several reasons for that. Primarily, in 2014 when Munda lost his seat and hence the chief ministership, Das benefited the most. He was made the chief minister despite being a non-tribal. Moreover, Das, in the last five years, reportedly publicly humiliated Muda’s supporters within the BJP, especially those living in Jamshedpur.
The expulsion of Amarpreet Singh Kale, known to be a close confidant of Union minister Munda in Jamshedpur, ahead of the elections was seen as another form of humiliation. It is believed that Kale, who is also former spokesperson of the BJP in the state and holds considerable influence over party workers in Jamshedpur, worked against Das. “Kale’s men in the party managed more than 90 booths on election day,” a local reporter told The Wire, adding, “I am sure that must have worked in favour of Roy.”
There is another important angle which is responsible for the BJP’s defeat in the industrial town. “Bihari voters and supporters” turned their back on the party. In this election, voters and supporters of Bihar origin, especially BJP workers, are believed to have sided with Roy in large numbers instead of the party’s official candidate. According to a local reporter, who did not wish to be named, this is one of the biggest reasons for the party’s defeat in both constituencies. He said there is a decisive number of voters of Bihari origin in both constituencies, and there was a feeling amongst them that they are ignored by Das and his supporters. Notably, Roy is of Bihari origin and Das was born in Chhattisgarh.
Last and not the least, ever since Das was made the chief minister, it became very difficult for most of his supporters and voters to reach him. This eventually led to a situation where affairs at the constituency level were left to a close group of chosen people, who, it is widely perceived, instead of working for the welfare of people, allegedly made lots of money. This also irked lots of voters and hence they decided to vote for Roy instead of Das.