The appointment is seen as party’s effort to woo tribal vote bank
The BJP on Tuesday appointed its time-tested tribal face—Babulal Marandi as state BJP’s new president replacing Deepak Prakash. Marandi’s appointment as state BJP president was made by party national president Jagat Prakash Nadda. The appointment was announced by BJP national general secretary Arun Singh.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday appointed state chiefs for Telangana, Punjab and Jharkhand. While Congress turncoat Sunil Jakhar gets the responsibility of Punjab, Babulal Marandi will be looking after the Jharkhand unit. G Kishan Reddy has been made the BJP chief of Telangana, which will go to polls this year.
The appointment of Marandi as BJP president assumes importance as State BJP has seen organisational change ahead of general election and Assembly election both next year. A senior BJP leader requesting anonymity said, “We welcome the appointment of Marandi as new state president as there is no BJP leader in state BJP other than Marandi. Arjun Munda the other tribal BJP leader has been shifted to centre politics, all onus falls on Marandi.”
“There is no other leader than Marandi who can take on JMM and Hemant Soren especially in Santhal Paragana and other tribal regions. Moreover, Marandi is much acceptable leader among both tribal as well as non-tribals,” said the BJP leader.
The JMM, which has a strong base among Santhals in Kolhan and Santhal Pargana will face a match in Babulal Marandi, who happens to be the tallest Santhali leader in the BJP, Besides, he also commands a good support base among non-tribals.
One of the major reasons for the electoral debacle suffered by the BJP in the 2019 Assembly polls was the party’s decision to continue with the non-tribal Raghubar Das as its chief ministerial candidate.
Das was installed as the chief minister of Jharkhand by the party central leadership after the party won the 2014 assembly polls. His anti-tribal rants, short temper and misbehaviour with party leaders cost the party dearly in the 2019 polls.
The BJP could win only 25 seats in the 81-member assembly, including two of the 28 seats reserved for tribals. Das was the only non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand, a state that was carved out of Bihar for tribals. His non-tribal status and roots in neighbouring Chhattisgarh became a major election issue.
Sources said that Marandi could be the best person to counter the JMM, which won the elections promising the electorates to define locals on the 1932 Khatiyan and hiking reservation to 77 per cent.
Marandi will be given free hand by the BJP central leadership to explore the possibility of weaning away disgruntled tribal votes from the JMM.
After the 2019 Assembly election Marandi merged his party JVM (P) with the BJP after suspending his two party legislators, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, who later merged their faction with the Congress. Marandi the first Chief Minister of State joined BJP after 14 years and the BJP welcomed his Ghar wapsi by making him as Leader of Opposition, but even after passing years the Speaker is yet to grant him LoP status as he faces anti-defection charges.