The candidate selection strategies of the ruling INDIA bloc and the Opposition NDA for the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly polls suggest that while the Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and its allies do not appear to be troubled by “anti-incumbency”, the BJP and its partners too are relying on many “tried-and-tested” faces.

Across the state and its two major alliances, there are 55 sitting MLAs in the fray and another 32 leaders who had lost in the 2019 Assembly polls but have been fielded by their respective parties again.

The INDIA alliance – comprising the JMM, Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI(ML)L – together has fielded 35 candidates who had emerged victorious five years ago en route to forming their JMM-led coalition government with 47 MLAs in the 81-member Assembly. While the JMM has repeated 21 of its 30 winners from 2019, the Congress has renominated 13 of its 16 sitting MLAs, and the CPI(ML)L has nominated its sole sitting MLA. The INDIA bloc has repeated six winners who had won the 2019 polls with margins less than 10,000 votes.

In comparison, the BJP has again fielded 18 of its 25 winners from the 2019 Assembly polls, while its current ally All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU), which had contested the last elections independently, has renominated both its sitting MLAs. In the seats where the 2019 winners have been fielded, the BJP-led NDA had won seven of them with margins under 10,000 votes and just one with a vote share less than 30%.

Both alliances have fielded roughly the same number of new candidates – those who were not fielded in 2019 but have been nominated this time – including several turncoats on either side. While the INDIA bloc has named 24 new faces in seats it lost in 2019 (including 17 to the BJP and two to the AJSU), it has also fielded new candidates in 13 seats it had won, for a total of 37 new candidates. The JMM has fielded 19 new candidates, the Congress 12, and the RJD three. The CPI(ML)L was not their ally in the 2019 polls. 

However, it is worth noting that the INDIA bloc will have friendly fights in three seats – in Dhanwar between the JMM and the CPI(ML)L, and between the Congress and the RJD in Bishrampur and Chhatarpur – and has thus fielded altogether 84 candidates. In 2019, of these three seats, while the then Babulal Marandi-led Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) had won Dhanwar, the BJP had won the remaining two seats.

The seats where the INDIA bloc has fielded new candidates include six that it had lost and two it had won by margins less than 10,000 votes. In three seats that the alliance had won in 2019 but has now named new candidates, the previous winners have now quit to join the Opposition, including former CM Champai Soren and JMM patriarch Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren, both of whom are in the BJP this time. Of the 37 seats with new faces, the alliance had won 12 with a vote share exceeding 40% in 2019, but its candidates had forfeited their deposits in 11 other seats by winning less than one-sixth of the vote share.

Among the notable new faces are CM Soren’s wife Kalpana, who had made a successful electoral debut in the Gandey Assembly seat bypoll earlier this year after her husband had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case. The CM’s brother Basant, who won the Dumka bypoll in 2020 after Hemant vacated the seat having won from Barhait as well, has again been fielded from the same seat. The other family members of politicians in the fray who are debutants include the JMM’s Alok Soren, replacing his father Nalin after he recently became an MP; JMM’s Jagat Majhi, whose mother Joba was a Union minister; and Nishat Alam, replacing her husband Alamgir Alam, a former Congress minister who has been jailed in an alleged money laundering case. The most notable turncoat among the new faces is Lois Marandi, a former minister who quit the BJP to join the JMM just days before the nomination filing deadline.

The NDA, on the other hand, has named 41 new candidates, including 37 by the BJP, and two each by the AJSU and Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), which is contesting just two seats under their seat-sharing pact. In the seats with its new faces, the NDA had lost 35 and won just six. A majority of these seats, at 22, were won by the JMM, followed by the Congress at seven.

Of the seats where the NDA has fielded new faces, the alliance had lost seven by margins under 10,000 votes in 2019 and secured a vote share higher than 40% in six seats. But in seven seats, the NDA candidates had forfeited their deposits.

Besides Champai Soren, Geeta Koda, a former Congress MP and wife of former CM Madhu Koda, is the other prominent turncoat fielded by the BJP. She will contest from Jagannathpur.

Among the notable new faces are Champai’s son Babulal Soren, who will contest from Ghatsila, which the BJP had lost to the JMM in 2019. The BJP’s new candidates also include other dynasts, from ex-CM Raghubar Das’s daughter-in-law Purnima making her electoral debut in Jamshedpur East to former Union minister Arjun Munda’s wife Meera contesting from Potka. These faces include at least three sitting JMM MLAs who switched to the BJP, and one sitting Independent MLA who has also joined the BJP.

The two alliance has also renominated 32 candidates who had lost in the 2019 polls, including 12 by the INDIA bloc and 20 by the NDA. Among the ruling alliance members, the Congress has fielded five such candidates, the RJD four and the JMM three. They include six candidates who had lost last time by less than 10,000 votes and three who had lost by more than 20,000 votes. At least eight of them had secured vote share above 35%.

On the NDA front, the BJP has repeated 13 candidates who lost in 2019, the AJSU six and the Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) one. These include five seats that the candidates had lost by less than 10,000 votes and seven others who had lost by more than 20,000 votes. Nine of these repeated candidates had lost despite securing more than a 35% vote share.