Jharkhand: Wooing women voters, and the inscrutable ways of the ECI

It’s the BJP’s Gogo Didi Yojana against the JMM’s Maiyya Samman Yojana that has created the latest storm in the state. The BJP’s monthly cash transfer to women stood at Rs 2,100. At its last cabinet meeting, the JMM-led government announced it would amp its own offering from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500, starting in December.

The JMM has already paid three instalments of the one grand it pledged, with the fourth instalment due in November. The scheme is said to have covered 53 lakh women in the state.

The BJP had already challenged the JMM scheme in court on the plea that it was being implemented as a sop barely four months before assembly elections were due. That challenge fell through, partly because the BJP had announced and implemented similar schemes in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra in exactly the same way, i.e. before elections were announced in the two states.

The fresh challenge, however, has more bite. With counting over by 23 November, a new government is likely to be in place before December.

The BJP’s Gogo Didi scheme (gogo in Santhali means ‘mother’) was unwittingly given traction by the JMM’s vociferous opposition to it. Even within the JMM, people felt that announcing the intent to enhance the amount would have sufficed, followed up by fuss-free implementation.

Instead, JMM general-secretary Vinod Pandey accused the BJP of defrauding women by inviting them to buy Gogo Didi forms for Rs 500 each, filling up all details except bank account and Aadhaar numbers. Other BJP bluffs like selling LPG cylinders for Rs 500 each were raised, empty promises that were not kept in MP or Rajasthan. Why, then, should the women of Jharkhand believe them, Pandey asked.

The JMM also reminded folks that the Election Commission of India had objected in May to the Indian National Congress (INC) getting people to fill up its NYAY guarantee forms. The ECI had then held that no political party was entitled to collect such details and promise questionable freebies. The ECI had also tried (in vain) to ensure that political parties explain the implementation and funding of such schemes.

Chief minister Hemant Soren directed deputy commissioners (DCs) to ensure that no rules were violated. According to media reports, several DCs went ahead and booked local BJP leaders holding assemblies for women to fill up the said forms.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Assam chief minister jointly in-charge of the BJP’s campaign in Jharkhand, countered by claiming that the rule was not applicable to the BJP since the election was yet to be announced. Until the model code of conduct came into force with the notification of the election, the BJP was free to reach out to voters and collect their details.

If this interpretation is valid then the form-filling exercise may come to a halt, now that polling dates have finally been announced. But thanks to the war of words (and numbers) over the past few weeks, both schemes received more publicity than money could buy.

Meanwhile, some of the women concerned said having a bird in hand was better than two in the bush. Others were frank in admitting that larger was better when it came to cash. Which way the vote goes may well depend on how the cookie crumbles, money-wise.

Jairam Mahato ko gussa kyon aata hai?

A Ph.D. scholar with a degree in English literature, 30-year-old Jairam Mahato is the founder of the youngest political party in the state. Mahato was elected president of the Jharkhand Bhasha Khatian Sangharsh Samiti (JBKSS) in June 2023 at a public meeting described as ‘historic’ by local newspapers.

The resolution to form a party with the tiger as its symbol was taken at this well-attended gathering. Mahato’s aggressive speeches and conduct earned him the nickname of ‘Tiger’. His flashes of anger, people say, are but expressions of an angry young man troubled by injustice.

‘Tiger’ Mahato has just announced that his party is likely to contest in at least 70 of the 81 seats in the assembly election.

The name of his party encapsulates its agenda. Its prime objective is to secure land rights and jobs for ‘sons of the soil’ based on the 1932 khatian (land records).

Jharkhand’s inhabitants, Mahato points out, have been historically deprived of their land and rights, ruled by ‘outsiders’ even after the new state (carved out of Bihar) was formed in 2000. This sentiment is widely shared by the Adivasis, Kurmis and Sadans. Their grievance has always been that their language, culture, employment and representation was robbed by settler-colonials who wrested control of the region’s land, forests and mineral wealth.

A grievance strong enough for the JMM-led government to pass, not once but twice, a bill reserving class III and class IV jobs in the state for those whose ancestry can be traced back to the 1932 land records. The bill has twice been sent back by Raj Bhavan, the second time in December 2023 with the opinion of the Attorney General (AG) of India. The AG felt that the Bill could end up violating Article 14 of the Constitution which guarantees equality. He suggested that the Bill be modified to reserve only class IV jobs for ‘locals’ and other jobs for locals (as far as possible with all other things being equal).

The Hemant Soren-led government, however, passed the bill without modification, pointing out that the AG’s concerns had been addressed.

The BJP did not oppose the bill in the assembly but maintained that the government could ensure jobs for locals by executive order. The JMM responded by saying that it was important that the bill find its way to the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution to ensure immunity against any judicial intervention in the future.

With Jairam Mahato jumping into the fray, the domicile policy of a state with a tribal population of approximately 28 per cent is likely to become a hot button issue.

Asked at a conclave why he seemed to favour violence and was always so belligerent, Mahato rattled off several instances of alleged injustice. Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) — the Dhanbad-based public sector subsidiary of Coal India Ltd — had outsourced many of its jobs.

Mahato named two private companies which were paying monthly salaries of Rs 6,000 to people who would have received Rs 32,000 if employed by BCCL. In his university, a private company, he alleged, was handing out appointment letters while simultaneously collecting letters of resignation.

In the explosives factory in Gomia, private companies were offering salaries of Rs 20,000 on condition that the appointee would hand over Rs 8,000 to the supervisor.

“Yes, my blood boils… yes, I do get aggressive, who wouldn’t? Put an end to these injustices, I too will then start writing poems on love…” Mahato said.

Seasoned politicians and political analysts tend to play down his potential as a political leader, citing his lack of flexibility and inability to negotiate and cut deals. However, as Mahato pointed out, that is possibly a strength more than a weakness. What else can explain the 3.27 lakh votes that he polled in the Giridih Lok Sabha constituency earlier this year?

Polling riddles

Mindful of the criticism it faced five years ago when the assembly election for Jharkhand’s 81 seats was conducted in five phases (like Maharashtra), the ECI has restricted it to two phases this time.

The counting for both Maharashtra and Jharkhand has been scheduled on 23 November. While the Maharashtra assembly's term ends on 26 November 2024, that of the Jharkhand assembly concludes only in January 2025. This effectively means that the Jharkhand government will wind up one month short and the Maharashtra government three days short of full term.

Does this have a political or electoral significance? The popular perception is that, in 2019, the extended polling between 30 November and 20 December had allowed the then opposition coalition to contest more cohesively and put its limited resources to optimum use. This time, the BJP will not allow the ruling coalition that advantage.

In Maharashtra, the opposite logic seems to have been at work. Polling for 48 Lok Sabha seats were stretched over five phases, but polling for 288 seats in the assembly will be crunched into a single day! Strange are the ways of the Election Commission.