Having secured a majority, the Bharatiya Janata Party, along with its ally, the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU), is all set to form a government in Jharkhand.
Many political stalwarts, even former Chief Ministers, lost the election, in what political observers see as a shift from the politics of the past that has seen unstable regimes, five Chief Ministers and intermittent periods of President’s rule since the State was formed 14 years ago.
With the BJP not projecting a chief ministerial candidate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a free hand now.
Of the 81 seats, the BJP-AJSU combine got 42, while the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha finished with 19. The Congress was reduced to six seats, while the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) bagged eight.
The former Chief Ministers Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda and Babulal Marandi lost the election. Chief Minister Hemant Soren was defeated in Dumka, but won Barhet.
The Parliamentary board of the party is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the name but speculations have been rife in the political corridor of the State. Earlier, the BJP leaders have been saying that Jharkhand this time may have a non-tribal Chief Minister and there could be a Haryana-like surprise in Jharkhand too. Amid several names popping up one of them is Arjun Munda, a former Chief Minister who has lost the poll from Kharsawan assembly constituency.
The other names doing the round are Raghuvar Das, Sudarshan Bhagat, Saryu Rai, Sunil Singh and Ganesh Mishra.
Sources in the party told The Hindu that names of Ganesh Mishra who is close to the RSS and BJP top leadership might be the dark horse like Manoharlal Khattar of Haryana.
Among the non-tribal face the BJP leader Saryu Rai who won the poll from Jamshedpur (east) and Sunil Singh, party MP from Chatra too could come up as surprise candidates for the chief minister’s post.
Both Mr. Saryu Rai and Mr. Sunil Singh are considered close to the RSS and top BJP leadership with their political insight and understanding.
“Mr. Rai even could handle both the party and the corporate pressure with equal ease,” said a party source.
While on the other hand party leader and former Deputy Chief Minister in 2010 Raghuvar Das who too won the poll from Jamshedpur (west) is in the race for the post. “I’ll always be the Das for the people of Jharkhand but who will don the mantle is being decided by the party’s Parliamentary board,” said Mr. Das.
RJD, JD(U) draw blank
The Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Janata Dal (United) failed to open their account in the election. “The BJP failed to get the number of seats it had projected. The other parties failed to get a good result for division of votes,” JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar said.
