Ranchi: Although the BJP failed to win over the tribal voters in Jharkhand losing all five ST reserved seats in the just concluded Lok Sabha election 2024, party's state President Babulal Marandi is confident that the party will form the next government after the assembly election scheduled later this year.
Although the BJP won 9 of the 14 seats in Jharkhand, it failed to open its account in the five ST reserved seats.
In a special conversation with ETV Bharat, Marandi said that they will brainstorm over the lapses in the election campaigning and bounce back stronger in the upcoming assembly elections in Jharkhand.
“Winning and losing are part of the elections. We will deliberate where we erred in the campaigning. We will gauge the sentiments of the voters on the ground,” he said. Marandi also accused the opposition of weaving a “negative campaign narrative accusing the BJP of trying to change the constitution”. “But we will bounce back stronger,” he added.
Over a question whether Lok Sabha election result will have any impact on the assembly elections in Jharkhand, Marandi replied in the negative.
“Lok Sabha and assembly elections are two different things. In the 2004 Lok Sabha election, the BJP won just one seat and it was leading in only 15-16 of the assembly segments. But in the subsequent assembly election, we won 30 seats. So, this shows that it is not necessary that the Lok Sabha and assembly election results will be the same,” he emphasized.
Asked about the reason behind the sidelining of the Jharkhand MPs Vidyut Varan Mahto and Chandraprakash Chaudhary in the Modi 3.0 cabinet, Marandi said, “The cabinet berth allotment lies with the PM. He has to keep the countrywide equations in mind. It is not possible to give cabinet berths to MPs of every caste and community”.
On a question on the loss of party candidates Geeta Koda who lost the election from Singhbhum and Sita Soren who lost from Dumka and whether it was because of sidelining the ground cadre leaders, the state BJP President said, “It is not like that. We had fielded cadre candidates at other seats which we lost. On the other hand, we have won seats where we have benched sitting MPs and fielded new candidates in the past”.
Asked whether party candidates Dhullu Mahto, Manish Jaiswal and Kalicharan Singh—all three of whom were associated with JVM, floated by Marandi himself in 2006 after differences with the then BJP top brass—were fielded due to his proximity with the candidates, Marandi said, “We did not join another party. There were differences, so we were out for some time”.
Marandi said that the upcoming assembly election in Jharkhand will be fought by the leaders “in the name of the BJP” rather than any individual leader.
