The Hindu : National : Soren issue not to be BJP focus in Jharkhand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 11, 2005

National

National

Soren issue not to be BJP focus in Jharkhand

By Neena Vyas

NEW DELHI, JAN. 10. The criminal charge against the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader, Shibu Soren, may not be the main issue to be raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party in its election campaign in Jharkhand, which will begin in earnest around January 20 after the withdrawal of nominations by candidates.

Instead, the party would focus on the rise in the prices of many essential commodities, including sugar, the party's "prabhari" for the State and general secretary, Rajnath Singh, said today. "We want to tell the people that they got a separate State after a struggle and they should not be ushering in a Government that will bring back the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief, Lalu Prasad Yadav [who will be contesting the election in alliance with the Congress Party, the JMM and the Left]."

Not pessimistic

In a State where social divisions are clear — the non-"sadan" are the adivasis and the rest are the "sadan" or the non-tribals — the BJP's support base is very much among the non-tribals that constitute over 65 per cent of the population. Although the BJP-JD (U) alliance was defeated during the May Lok Sabha polls last year — together they won only 1 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats — Mr. Singh is not so pessimistic. He said that in May 2004, the BJP-JD (U) alliance had all but fallen out, with a large number of rebels standing for election.

This time the seat-sharing had been smooth, he said. The BJP would contest 63 seats and the JD (U) 17, leaving one seat for the All Jharkhand Students' Union. The alliance was confident despite a strong anti-incumbency factor working against it.

There was also a view in the BJP that with the JMM being given the larger share of seats in the rival alliance, Shibu Soren will get projected "automatically" as their chief ministerial aspirant, leading to a polarisation of the tribal and non-tribal votes. The BJP, on the other hand, had decided not to project a chief ministerial candidate although it was the ruling party there.

As for the issue the BJP had vociferously raised, that Mr. Soren was "tainted" because of the charge levelled against him, Mr. Singh said it was "for the courts to decide" and because Mr. Soren was in politics, the "people's court would decide.''

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