Gaon Ki Sarkar (Government of village) was not only an election slogan, but also the ideological path of AJSU Party, and the party will stick to this ideology in the days to come,” party chief Sudesh Mahto said during the Central Committee meeting of the party here on Tuesday.
The party, he said, will put forth demands of common Jharkhandis in the Assembly and ensure that justice is served to the villagers. “We respect the voters’ mandate in the 2019 elections. Our legislators will put forth the demands of common Jharkhandis in the Assembly and work for the holistic betterment of the State,” the former Deputy Chief Minister said.
The party contested in more than 52 constituencies out of the 81 Assembly segments here in the recently concluded elections. Though it won only two seats, the party chief Sudesh Mahto managed to pull off a victory in Silli constituency after a series of losses since 2009. The party, leaders said on Tuesday, has decided to go ahead with its ideology of village-centric politics in Jharkhand.
AJSU Party’s General Secretary, MP Chandraprakash Choudhary said that the party’s vote share has increased in all parts of Jharkhand and it has managed to penetrate areas where it did not have a support base earlier. “Our party workers will continue working at the ground level and prepare a stronger base for the 2024 elections,” he said.
The purpose behind the meeting on Tuesday was to study the trends of the recently-concluded elections and see where all the party performed well, party leaders said. AJSU Party, which has been an old ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been a part of almost all the NDA-led coalitions in Jharkhand, contested this election on its own. It also went head-on with BJP candidate in almost all the seats the party fielded candidates for.
Gomia legislator Lambodar Mahto said that the election results were encouraging for the party. The party, he added, has made inroads into many areas which did not have any AJSU Party supporters in the past. “The elections results are encouraging for the party workers as well as the leaders. The party will stick to its Gaon Ki Sarkar slogan in the upcoming elections and do even better,” he said.
The party chief Sudesh Mahto also thanked the party workers for their efforts during the elections and said that a major share of the credit for the victories should go to the party workers. Who’s who of the party, including former ministers, legislators and parliamentarians, also attended the meeting. The party is yet to take a call on whether it will support the ruling Government in the Assembly or sit in the opposition bench.