Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda is blaming the split in the ruling NDA for its virtual rout in the general elections in the state, having won only 1 seat as compared to 11 in the 13th Lok Sabha elections. His argument is that the BJP’s sitting MPs lost to candidates of the Congress and its allies (JMM, RJD and CPI), because the BJP’s poll partners JD-U and the All Jharkhand Students’ Union, put up candidates who cut their votes. However, his claim is not entirely true, as even two sitting Congress MPs — Thomas Hansda and Tilakdhari Singh —lost to JMM’s Hemlal Murmu and BJP’s Babulal Marandi in Rajmahal and Koderma respectively. So, while JMM chief Shibu Soren romped home, the remaining 11 of the sitting BJP MPs including three ministers —Nagmani, Karia Munda and Yashwant Sinha — bit the dust.The reasons for this debacle are best illustrated in the Chottanagpur division, where an estimated eight million people suffer due to repeated power cuts and water scarcity every summer. This summer too, when polls were being held, the scene was not very different. ‘‘In this kind of an environment, BJP’s ‘feel good’ slogan sounded like a cruel joke. Every adult member of my family voted against the MP who had not shown his face here for long,’’ said Randhir Agrawal, a resident of Ranchi. Also, the Anti Defection Act, which sought to reduce the ministry’s size to 15 per cent of the total strength of the House, unleashed an undercurrent of tension in the ruling NDA in Jharkhand.The Congress and its allies under these circumstances, swept the polls promising bijli, sadak and pani to all.
