Ranchi/Ramgarh/Hazaribagh/Giridih: Ramdeo Vishwabandhu, a former journalist-turned social activist in Giridih, a district headquarter in the north Chotanagpur plateau of Jharkhand, appeared exhausted and irked by constant ‘non-issues’ that populate the Hindi newspapers. “The newspapers are full of top BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] politicians raising a communal pitch in the elections to target Muslims. All of them claim that a number of Bangladeshi ‘infiltrators’ have entered the state of Jharkhand and grabbed land,” he said, as he flipped through regional editions of national Hindi dailies on his office desk.
“All such claims will get a big zero in a fact-check, but none of these newspapers are investigating the truth in such claims,” he said, asserting that despite BJP’s attempt to trigger a wedge between the Adivasis and Muslims, the ‘infiltration’ hypothesis doesn’t matter to common people.
“Only those who are BJP cadres and were anyway going to vote for it are talking about it,” he added.
BJP booth in Ranchi. Photo: Ajoy Ashirwad
The Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) government’s welfare schemes, the plank on which the INDIA bloc is contesting the 2024 assembly elections, have found much less space in news platforms than the alleged concerns about ‘infiltration’ raised by BJP leaders.
“The BJP’s political narrative is much weaker on the ground than that of the JMM, as people are more worried about issues like inflation, high costs of electricity, poor education infrastructure, and even forced labour migration,” he said.
Yet, Vishwabandhu, a keen observer of Jharkhand politics for many decades, believes that such polarising politics, be it Hindu-Muslim or Adivasi-Muslim, has a specific import for the BJP in urban and semi-urban areas where a large section of voters rely on news and political hearsay.
The urban-rural divide is particularly stark in Jharkhand. The state is dotted with densely-populated and ever-expanding semi-urban settlements, situated between large tracts of contiguous forests in some regions and vast swathes of freshly-harvested paddy fields in others. The 2011 census showed that a little over 24% of Jharkhand’s population lived in urban areas. However, the figure may have drastically increased, given an unprecedented expansion of urban and peri-urban settlements in the state.
Also read: Guns, Gems and Growth: What the Affidavits of Maharashtra and Jharkhand Candidates Reveal
“Hazaribagh now begins from Charhi, which used to be nearly 25 kilometres away in the past. Ranchi, too, now starts right after Bero, almost 30 kilometres away. Dhanbad has expanded itself to Dumri,” said Shankar Agarwal, a cab driver in Ranchi.
JMM hoarding near Giridih. Photo: Ajoy Ashirwad
People in Jharkhand have looked to build their homes in what were erstwhile paddy fields. Municipalities have used their time to expand their administrative regions by changing the ‘land use’ of agrarian farms for commercial and residential purposes, but without adequately building basic urban infrastructure like water supply pipelines, waste disposal mechanisms, public lighting and drainage systems. Yet, real estate construction has boomed at unprecedented levels, lending to densely-populated pockets across the state.
The BJP has been a strong advocate of urbanisation across India and has succeeded in influencing a large part of the electorate in such settlements, even in Jharkhand.
“Once you become a part of these poorly-built urban areas, your concerns change. BJP’s thrust on road development, beautification, access to 24-hour electricity, and building business infrastructure appeal to people who were earlier also thinking about more structural problems of Jharkhand like social injustice, inequality, and land rights,” Vishwabandhu said.
The last few elections have shown that BJP performs well in urban and peri-urban areas. It has built area-level units and deployed its political machinery for outreach much more consistently in such settlements than any other political party in the fray. The high density of population in urban areas has also allowed the party to take their political message to the masses effectively, even with little time in hand. In contrast, political parties need both time and resources to campaign across vast stretches of hinterland, where competitive politics is much more even.
Unlike parties like JMM, which has a traditional voter base comprising all communities in Jharkhand, the BJP didn’t have any. But over the years, it has cornered a significant advantage in these urban areas which gives it a ready-made fillip in elections.
BJP supporters at an Amit Shah rally in Giridih. Photo: Ajoy Ashirwad.
“A large part of the town will vote for BJP, where a mix of population lives,” said Bindeshwar Mahato, a snack shop owner in Ramgarh, but also added, “the village dynamics, however, are different. He said that he has been voting for the BJP ever since he gained consciousness.
Tinku Thakur, a Dalit barber by profession, concurs. “I will vote for BJP, too. My family is BJP-minded,” he said.
Mahato was on point, as the mood entirely changed in Sagua, a village only five kilometres away from Ramgarh’s outskirts. Here, some people preferred the Congress over the BJP, while some others said that they were looking for new alternatives and pinned their hopes on the recently formed Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) led by Jairam Mahato.
The mood switched between towns and villages similarly in Giridih, Ramgarh, and even the adivasi pockets of the Kolhan region in south Jharkhand.
“BJP always takes a strong lead in urban pockets in most elections, and puts it in a good stead. For other parties to defeat it, they need overwhelming support in villages,” Vishwabandhu said.
A JMM leader in Ranchi, who didn’t want to be named, told The Wire, “We understand that urban pockets are our weakness. But we are hoping that we receive some support from the urban poor because of our welfare schemes. The Hemant Soren government’s Maiya Samman Yojana (an allowance of Rs 1,000 per month for women below 50 years) and Sarvjan Pension Yojana (an allowance of Rs 1,000 for the poor above 50 years) have benefitted a large section of urban poor.”
Congress workers in Mandu. Photo: Ajoy Ashirwad.
“Our government has also opened new schools and degree colleges in most towns of the state, while also developing and beautifying public infrastructure,” the leader said. He also hoped that since the Congress has a better hold over urban voters than the JMM, their alliance will be able to compete with the BJP in urban constituencies.
The rural-urban divide in Jharkhand is stark in comparison to other states of India. The urban pockets of Jharkhand have also become communally volatile. Low-intensity riots, all of which were quickly contained, have marked the state’s urban settlements ever since Hemant Soren came to power.
A majority of Muslims live in urban areas in the state and have preferred non-BJP parties historically. Given the fact that the BJP’s most effective tactic has been to polarise the electorate along religious lines, it has used the Muslim political preference to amplify its rhetoric against the minority community. At the same time, it has created a fear among Hindus that any vote for the Congress or JMM may lead to weakening of their position.
Due to these factors, urban pockets have transformed into communal hotspots in Jharkhand. For the regular urban Hindu voter, exercising her franchise has become a choice between judging a governance model and a question of security that has been fed to them consistently by the BJP patron in the locality. The near absence of political work by secular parties invariably has the BJP in a commanding position in towns and peri-urban areas.
“Hemant [Soren] supported us when we were feeling squeezed from all sides. He also brought us back to our homes safely during the pandemic. Chunav mein magar, sab kuch Hindu-Muslim ho jaata hai (But during elections, everything gets reduced to the Hindu-Muslim question),” said Sudip Mandal, an Hazaribagh resident who works as an electrician in Mumbai.
