New Delhi. Only three days are left for the campaign to end for the first phase of the Jharkhand Assembly elections and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is now entering the campaign. Rahul Gandhi will trumpet the Congress election campaign from the Christian-majority Simdega area and then address the second public meeting in Lohardaga. In this way, through his two rallies on Friday, Rahul has planned to penetrate the BJP’s stronghold in Jharkhand and win 15 assembly seats in the southern Chhota Nagpur belt. The BJP’s hopes are also pinned in this area, so a game of checkmate is being played between both parties.
Chhota Nagpur southern division of Jharkhand is spread across five districts, Ranchi, Khunti, Gumla, Lohardaga and Simdega. The policy of this division is never unilateral. After Jharkhand became an independent state in 2000, it was considered a BJP stronghold from the assembly election point of view, but in the 2019 elections, the JMM Congress managed to break this stronghold. Despite this, the contest between the BJP and the Congress was even, but this time there is a war between both parties to maintain the leadership.
Rahul Gandhi will begin election campaigning in Jharkhand from Friday. Rahul Gandhi’s first public meeting will be held at Gandhi Maidan in Simdega and then he will address the second rally at BS College Ground in Lohardaga area. Later on Saturday, he will be seen trying to create a political atmosphere by holding a road show for Indian Alliance candidates in Jamshedpur and then holding a public meeting in Hazaribagh’s Chauparan. Thus, Rahul Gandhi has chalked out a plan to win the Jharkhand electoral battle with full force.
Simdega and Lohardaga, where former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will attend a rally on Friday, both the districts fall in the southern Chhota Nagpur area. Of the 15 assembly seats in this area, which is considered tribal dominated, 11 seats are reserved for the scheduled tribes and one seat is reserved for the Kanke scheduled caste. Apart from this, three seats, Ranchi, Hatia and Silli, are common.
In the 2019 assembly elections, out of 15 seats in southern Chhota Nagpur region, the Congress-JMM alliance won 9 seats, of which 5 were won by Congress and 4 by JMM. The BJP had stopped him in five seats. AJSU had won only one seat. At the same time, in this region, the BJP managed to win seven seats in the 2005 elections, five in 2009 and eight in 2014, while the Congress won three seats each in 2005 and 2009, but only one seat in 2014. At the same time, the entire game changed in the 2019 assembly elections and the JMM-Congress alliance gave a big blow in this division.
According to the 2011 census, the population of south Chhotanagpur is more than 55 lakh, of which more than 72 per cent are tribals, while 6 per cent are minorities, 5 per cent are scheduled castes and OBCs and the Remaining 17 percent are general castes. Looking at the political inclination of castes, it is clear that once upon a time the tribals also supported the BJP, but due to the Pathalgadi movement after 2014, the tribals have distanced themselves from the BJP.
The BJP’s political base began to decline in Khunti, Simdega, Gumla and Lohardaga districts and the JMM Congress made strong inroads. Since leaving power, the BJP has made efforts in this entire area and awaits its return. This time the BJP is trying its best to get tribal votes, but the responsibility of the Congress and the JMM also depends on this vote bank. In this situation, Rahul Gandhi has given a great message by choosing him for the election campaign in Simdoga, where 50 percent of the population is Christian.
