From Khaki to Khadi: BJP beaten by former IPS in Jamshedpur by-poll

By Soroor Ahmed

The July 4 humiliating defeat of the ruling BJP in the by-election for Jamshedpur parliamentary seat, which was vacated by none else but by the state chief minister, Arjun Munda, is being widely interpreted as a referendum against the BJP-JMM government in the state.

Dr Ajay Kumar of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha won by a comfortable margin of 1,55,000 votes from Jamshedpur parliamentary seat. In 2009 parliamentary election the BJP’s Arjun Munda won the seat. However, after the JMM and BJP formed an alliance government six months back he vacated the seat to once again become the chief minister of the state.

By-elections are usually won by the ruling party as people generally do not take much interest. But in Jamshedpur the case was totally different.

Though both the JMM and the BJP are sharing power in the state they both fielded their candidates and got around 78,000-odd votes each. Similarly, though the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha of former chief minister Babulal Marandi and Congress fought the December 2009 Assembly election together they chose to fight separately this time.

Dr Ajay Kumar is neither a tribal nor a Jharkhandi nor even a Bihari or north Indian. He is from Karnataka yet he managed to win the election by a huge margin.

What is more: he is reported to have good connection with the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi too.

Apart from the general disillusionment of the people with the present government, considered most inefficient and corrupt, Dr Kumar won because of the personal charisma of Babulal Marandi. The latter was the first and longest serving chief minister of Jharkhand, which was carved out from Bihar on November 15, 2000.  He was then in the BJP, but had to resign following differences within the party. He floated his own outfit, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha.

As the longest serving chief minister he symbolized a sort of stability in the state, which had witnessed about a dozen change in the governments in the last eight years since he left the post of chief minister.

Dr Kumar has his own good reputation. As an IPS officer he is said to have done good work. He served as the SP of Patna when riots took place in Patna City in 1990. He was widely appreciated for the strict handling of communal riots. Later he became the SP of East Singhbhum district––Jamshedpur falls in it. He was always considered as close to the then chief minister of Bihar and now the RJD leader, Lalu Yadav.

He managed to get a large number of votes of Muslims. But many non-tribal Hindus and people of Bihari origin, who live in Jamsehedpur, also backed him because of his good reputation as SP both in Patna and the Steel City. For example, famous actress Neetu Chandra, who is originally from Patna, came all the way to Jamshedpur to campaign for Dr Kumar simply because he is still remembered in Patna for his good work against the criminals.

What sounds somewhat strange is that while a former IPS officer won election in Jharkhand on his good performance as the SP, both in Patna and Jamshedpur, the present Nitish Kumar regime is always busy painting Bihar of 1990s in the darkest of colours. “People do not used to get out after sunset in Patna and elsewhere in Bihar in those years,” is the common refrain of the NDA leaders now.

Dr Kumar, it needs to be recalled, quit the IPS job in mid-1990s and joined Tata as General Manager. In the present by-poll he had the backing of Tatas too.

Uncertainty is looming large over the Munda government in Jharkhand after this defeat as slanging match has started between the JMM and BJP.