Jharkhand Assembly polls: Babulal Marandi or Raghubar Das, who is the biggest loser?
Who could be the worst victim of defection? Even in a State like Jharkhand where party-hopping has been a rule rather than exception, the name of State’s first chief minister and now the Chief of Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (JVM), Babulal Marandi props up as the biggest casualty. If losing Lok Sabha and assembly poll was not bad enough - Marandi has also seen as many as 14 of his MLAs switching allegiance just when he needed them most.
Eight of his MLAs defected prior to the recently concluded Jharkhand Assembly polls - seven to BJP and one to JMM - while six more have shifted to BJP now, within two months of the assembly results.
But who could be the biggest loser - Marandi or Raghubar Das? While Marandi has only lost the MLAs, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das seems to have gained them at the cost of credibility and goodwill his party had acquired during the Narendra Modi wave.
When BJP on Wednesday formally inducted these six JVM MLAs at the state guesthouse in Delhi, it gave them a simple majority on its own and the much desired cushion against ally Ajsu's potential fickleness.
But, numbers don't always tell the entire truth. With these six MLAs in the party now, BJP’s numbers in the 82-member Jharkhand House has now shot up to 43 MLAs, a comfortable majority on its own. But, with these inductions, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, often seen as a straightforward politician and a man in a hurry to deliver good governance in Jharkhand, now ironically resembles a lot like some of his power hungry predecessors.
Worse still, having been in power for only seven weeks, the Raghubar Das government, which promised change and good governance, has only repeated what Jharkhand has seen since its inception in November 2000.
Though BJP's existing alliance with Ajsu party already ensured it a simple majority in the House, the Saffron party still encouraged these six party –hoppers to join them, which also speaks volumes about Raghubar Das mistrust for his alliance partner.
Earlier on February 10 the day AAP routed the BJP in the Delhi polls, six JVM legislators faxed a letter to the Jharkhand Assembly Speaker, requesting him to let them sit on the Treasury Benches with ruling BJP and Ajsu, as they had snapped ties with their party.
Next day, the six MLAs - Navin Jaiswal (Hatia), Ganesh Gounjhu (Simaria), Amar Kumar Bouri Chandankyari), Alok Kumar Chourasia (Daltonganj), Randhir Kumar Singh (Sarath) and Janki Prasad Yadav (Barkathha) reached Jharkhand Bhawan in New Delhi where Chief Minister Raghubar Das and state BJP president Ravindra Rai formalised their induction into the party.
Jaiswal apart, the other five are first-time MLAs, who seem to have learned Jharkhand tradition of hopping parties within two months of getting elected.
Since the move added to BJP number strength but eroded goodwill, which perhaps explains why a clutch of BJP heavyweights who had given Jharkhand poll campaigns sufficient attention, kept away from the moment of togetherness.
As these six MLAs constitute over two-third strength of the 8 JVM MLAs of JVM Legislator party, they may escape disqualification under the stringent anti-defection provisions of the 10th schedule. But, the BJP cannot shake off the blame for engineering the split after JVM Chief Babulal Marandi refused to merge his party with the BJP. Their switch can be legally tenable; but the decision of the six MLAs is tantamount to twisting mandate of their voters, who had voted for JVM and not BJP.
The shifting sands of politics leading to intrigues, change of hearts and party-hopping, have always been a consistent feature in Jharkhand’s political firmament. After all, the State has already seen 10 governments in less than fifteen years of State’s existence. But, unlike his nine predecessors, Raghubar Das already had a simple majority with 42 MLAs (BJP-37, AJSU-5) in the company its pre-poll alliance partner Ajsu.
Clearly, Raghubar Das was not comfortable leading a government, which was dependent upon Ajsu for its wafer-thin majority. As AJSU apparently failed to gain the BJP's trust as an ally despite being a pre-poll partner, Raghubar Das had kept the door ajar for new alliance partners.
This is clearly the reason why Raghubar Das, while taking over as Jharkhand 10th Chief Minister on December 28 had sworn in only four other Cabinet Ministers with him. He has not expanded his cabinet since then though seven more cabinet berths are vacant.
Prior to these defections, whenever asked Raghubar Das always offered a stock response that the expansion exercise would be completed “very soon.” Now, when Raghubar has secured a majority of his own and his government no longer dependent upon Sudesh Mahto’s Ajsu for its survival, the expansion of cabinet may take place soon. There are chances that a few of the new inductees could be awarded with ministerial berths in the Raghubar Das cabinet. Jaiswal, said to be the leader of the pack of defectors, can be one of them.
Now left with just two MLAs, Pradeep Yadav (Poreyahat) and Prakash Ram (Latehar), Babulal Marandi is furious at the BJP. He has handed a memorandum to Raj Bhavan, demanding judicial probe into the alleged poaching of his MLAs by the BJP and tougher anti- defection laws to stop legislators from switching parties after getting elected.
“This is to the detriment of the democracy. The JVM MLAs have been poached with lucrative offers. We demand a judicial probe by a high court judge to unravel the truth,” he said. The anti- defection laws should be further strengthened with a provision that the elected representatives will lose their House membership if they switch parties," Marandi said.
Anyone listening?