New Delhi: As Jharkhand gets ready to elect a new assembly later this year, one politician gearing up to contest the polls is the state’s former chief minister Raghubar Das.
Known as a power centre in Jharkhand, Das, a BJP leader, was elevated to the post of Odisha Governor in 2023 to leave the field clear for incumbent state BJP chief Babulal Marandi.
While Das is known to have taken up the Governor’s post reluctantly, he is now eyeing a return to state politics by fighting from Jamshedpur East seat which he represented five straight terms as MLA—until BJP rebel Saryu Roy famously defeated him as an independent in the 2019 state polls.
Roy, who joined the JD(U) last month, is this year again proving to be an obstacle for Das as he too is looking to fight from the seat. The two leaders’ plans have put the BJP in a fix as the party looks to thrash out an alliance with the JD(U), its ally in the NDA that it leads, for the state polls.
A BJP source told ThePrint that “in a recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, Das has explored the possibility of contesting the assembly election and return to state politics. Since the meeting, the Odisha Governor has been actively participating in religious and social activities in Jamshedpur to sense the mood”.
“However, his real problem is Saryu Roy who defeated him in 2019 and who is keen to contest from Jamshedpur East seat on a JD(U) ticket. For the BJP, this has become a tricky issue as the JD(U) is keen to fight the Jharkhand polls on many seats, and Roy’s seat is one of them,” the source added.
Speaking to ThePrint, Das said that “in the BJP, everything is decided by the party and it’s up to them to take a call”. However, sources close to him told ThePrint that he was looking to contest from Jamshedpur East only.
One such source pointed out that the “Jamshedpur East seat has been a BJP stronghold for two decades and leaving it would hurt the party. However, it has to take up the prickly issue”.
Roy, who is known to have a warm relationship with Bihar CM and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, too told ThePrint that he would “contest the election from Jamshedpur East and there is no doubt about that”.
“I am the sitting MLA and after joining JD(U), I will contest the election on a party ticket. As far as alliance with the BJP is concerned, both parties are working to figure out modalities,” he added.
BJP’s Jamshedpur district president Sudhanshu Ojha too said “it’s up to the party to decide on whether an alliance will take place and who will contest from Jamshedpur East”.
“Right now, the party is engaged in the poll campaign and ticket talks have not started,” Ojha added.
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Who is Das?
Das, the first non-tribal CM of Jharkhand, was in 2014 a surprise pick for the top post in the state where an estimated 26 percent of the population is tribal. Another 45 percent people are estimated to be from the OBC groups, that have largely backed the BJP in the state.
As his term ended in 2019, Das, a member of the OBC group, faced opposition from disgruntled tribals. The government’s (unsuccessful) attempts to amend the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act, which restrict the sale of tribal land to non-tribals, had alienated the community which believed the government was trying to grab their land.
The party lost the assembly polls to the JMM and won only two of 28 seats reserved for tribals in the state.
In 2020, Om Mathur, now Sikkim Governor who was in-charge of Jharkhand at the time, persuaded Marandi to merge his JVM (Prajatantrik) party with the BJP. The party last year appointed him as state unit president.
While Das was moved to Odisha, another powerful Jharkhand leader and former CM, Arjun Munda, remained in the Union Cabinet and Marandi was given a free hand in the state. However, the BJP lost all five tribal Lok Sabha seats of Jharkhand in the election this year and is now desperate to win back tribal support.
To this end, BJP sources said, the party has inducted former JMM leader Champai Soren to regain the Kolhan region, and asked Munda, former Minister of State for tribal affairs Sudarshan Bhagat, and Geeta Koda, who hails from the Ho Scheduled Tribe dominant in Singhbhum, to contest the upcoming assembly elections. However, Das has put the party in a difficult spot amid Roy’s plans to contest from Jamshedpur East.
Since last month, Das has been seen participating in a number of religious functions in Jamshedpur. On 5 August, he participated in Surya Mandir’s Jalabhishek Yatra, and a day later in Surya Mandir’s Ganga Aarti. On 26 August, he participated in a Janmashtami programme and a day later met home minister Shah in Delhi. This month too, he has been seen participating in several Ganesh Puja events in the city.
Speaking to ThePrint, Devendra Singh, BJP leader who fought the 2019 election from Jamshedpur West, said: “Raghubar Dasji has been seen in many social and cultural programmes in Jamshedpur as he has a long association with the city and has a residence too. So, despite being Odisha Governor, he visits the city frequently.”
Many in the party are averse to the idea of Das returning to state politics, becoming another power centre there and confusing voters.
A former state minister told ThePrint that the “BJP has worked to win over tribals by making Marandi the state unit president, Munda a Union minister and bringing in Champai Soren. The party has also inducted the tainted Madhu Koda for tribal votes. It had decided the leadership issue by sending Das to the Raj Bhavan and now his return to state politics would create confusion among voters before the poll.”
The Saryu Roy hurdle
In 2019, when Das was Jharkhand CM, he ensured that Roy, then a state minister, did not get a ticket from Jamshedpur West seat due to differences with him.
Roy revolted against this decision and decided to fight against Das from Jamshedpur East as an independent and won against the CM.
Roy is also known to have blown the whistle on several cases of corruption. He had made headlines in the 1990s when he made revelations about the fodder scam in Bihar, in which former CM Lalu Prasad was convicted. Later, Roy exposed the Madhu Koda government in the coal mining scam in Jharkhand. Koda was subsequently convicted in the matter.
Roy is now in the JD(U), which is desperate to expand its footprint outside Bihar and has considerable clout among the OBCs. The party has reportedly asked the BJP for 11 of 81 seats in Jharkhand, while the BJP is looking for an alliance to consolidate the Kurmi OBC group.
In the contest for Jamshedpur East, Roy is seen as having the upper hand as he is the sitting MLA.
Political circles are also abuzz that if the BJP high command does not allow Das to resign as Governor and contest the Jharkhand polls, his camp would favour the candidature of his daughter-in-law from Jamshedpur East.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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