VIJAY DEO JHA
Ranchi, March 10: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren must be smiling privately over the outcome of the assembly elections of five states where his alliance partner—the Congress—has suffered so badly. Many insiders of Congress said that the poll result will strengthen the position of Hemant Soren since Congress will not be in a position to pressurize him on many policy issues as a partner in the Hemant Soren led JMM-Congress-RJD government.
Recently, Jharkhand Congress had organized three days ‘Chintan Shivir’ to discuss the party and the performance of the Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD government. The Congress confronted the JMM and the chief minister with belligerent posturing to seek shares and power in the government. The Congress demanded the chief minister a common minimum programme for governance besides a coordination committee to be headed by the Congress to supervise the functioning and implementation of the government’s programmes.
“Grass is not green here in Jharkhand. The Congress has become very weak nationally so the alliance partners will start to elbow us out. No wonder, if Hemant Soren becomes more autocratic in his functioning. This is a crisis period and we have to be very careful that alliance partners don’t marginalize us. We can’t run away from the reality that the assembly election results have reduced our strength in Jharkhand,” said a senior party leader.
After ‘Chintan Shivir’ the Congress in Jharkhand became politically aggressive and it chalked out several programmes including the workers’ meet at divisional level, membership drive and others. During the Chintan Shivir the Congress MLAs, ministers and leaders alleged Hemant Soren for ignoring the Congress and its ministers.
Out of the five planned divisional level workers meet, the state unit so far has conducted three. The remaining two divisional level meet will be a must-watch affair to gauge the mood of the party. Insiders fear that the assembly election results will adversely affect the morale of party workers and membership drive.
“The mood of people is averse to the Congress. It will affect the membership drive. People may not be inclined to take membership. Workers may be restless because they will have no hope to gain anything out of this government. Our long-term interest lies in 2024 when the parliamentary and Jharkhand assembly election for which the entire exercise of Chintan Shivir was called,” said another leader.
The leader said that the possibility can’t be ruled that against wishes of the Congress, chief minister Hemant Soren may take some radical political decisions on state domicile and reservation policy to consolidate his votes.
A former MLA and senior party leader said that the common minimum programme and formation of a coordination committee were two core demands that the Congress insisted Hemant Soren to execute.
“I don’t think Hemant Soren will now concede these two demands which the Congress had demanded in the larger interest of Jharkhand,” said the leader.
