The BJP’s aggressive campaign around the alleged infiltration of Bangladeshis in Jharkhand found no traction in the Santhal Pargana division in the Assembly elections as the party was restricted to just one of the 18 seats in the region, three constituencies fewer than its 2019 tally.

In a further cause of worry for the BJP, its vote share dipped in six of the 17 seats it contested in the region that is seen as a stronghold of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren, while it registered a marginal increase in vote share in 11. For the INDIA bloc, the JMM improved its vote shares in all 11 seats it contested while the Congress saw its vote share spike in four of the five seats where it fielded candidates. The RJD bettered its 2019 performance in the two seats it contested.

The only seat that the BJP won was Jarmundi, which its candidate Devendra Kumar wrested from the Congress’s Badal by 17,546 votes.

Five years ago, the JMM won nine seats, the Congress and the BJP four each, while the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) of former CM Babulal Marandi emerged victorious in Poreyahat.

Marandi merged the JVM with the BJP in 2020, and with the AJSU Party too on board this time, the BJP hoped to better its 2019 performance in the region, when it had won the seats of Rajmahal, Godda, Deoghar, and Sarath. However, its hopes were dashed after the Congress’s Pradeep Yadav secured almost 53% of the votes and won Poreyahat while the RJD won Godda and Deoghar, and the JMM won Rajmahal and Sarath.

Among the seats where the JMM got the better of the BJP were all seven ST-reserved seats in the region. Chief Minister Hemant Soren retained Barhait with an increased vote share of 59%, a jump from the 53.49% he got in 2019 while his brother Basant bettered his 2019 performance, winning Dumka with a 51.33% vote share, up from the 49% he got five years ago. In both seats, the BJP finished runner-up.

The BJP’s ally AJSUP also bit the dust in the lone seat it contested in the region. In Pakur, where the BJP had alleged maximum demographic change due to infiltration, the Congress’s Nisat Alam, the wife of jailed former minister Alamgir Alam, defeated the AJSUP’s Azhar Islam by more than 86,000 votes.

In the run-up to the Assembly polls, the BJP repeatedly raked up the issue of “Bangladeshi infiltrators” allegedly marrying tribal women, buying land, and usurping jobs of locals in the Santhal Pargana region, comprising the six districts of Dumka, Jamtara, Godda, Sahebganj, Pakur, and Deoghar with BJP’s Jharkhand election co-in-charge and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma leading the charge.

A BJP leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the issue was brought up to secure the votes of tribals in the region. “The results show that tribal and OBC voters in the region are not concerned about this issue and are more worried about their identity. No tribal leader of the BJP or any other party raised this issue. This shows that this issue means nothing for the people of Jharkhand,” the leader said.

In September, a delegation of Jharkhand BJP leaders also urged the Election Commission (EC) to ensure that the alleged infiltrators are not allowed to vote. This came as the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in an affidavit submitted to the Jharkhand High Court, said alleged infiltration by Bangladeshis had been taking place since Independence. “Of late, the infiltrators preferred Sahibganj and Pakur districts due to the common dialect, which helped in their integration,” the affidavit said.

In Jamtara, BJP bigwig and Hemant Soren’s estranged sister-in-law Sita tasted defeat as the Congress’s Irfan Ansari won by 43,676 votes. Like in 2019, the JMM-Congress-RJD combine also won all the nine Santhal Pargana seats bordering West Bengal, where the BJP had alleged demographic changes due to infiltration.