JMM has fallen back on its time-tested strength of tribal votes to field firebrand party veteran, ‘Kolhan Tiger’ Champai Soren for the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat.
Dubbed Kolhan Tiger for his mass appeal, especially as a labour leader in the Adityapur-Gamharia-Seraikela belt and with the JMM from the start, sitting Seraikela MLA Champai, 63, became JMM’s choice on Tuesday evening.
Till as recently as Sunday, the name of Astik Mahto, a Kurmi leader and a close associate of slain JMM leader Nirmal Mahto, was doing the rounds for the Jamshedpur seat.
Justifying Champai’s nomination, a member of the central executive committee of JMM privy to Tuesday’s meeting, said JMM had managed to polarise tribal voters against the ruling dispensation over loopholes in domicile and land acquisition policies of the BJP-led government, and hence needed a tribal face. “We wanted to play to our strengths, our tribal vote base,” he said.
“Based on electoral roll data, we found that there are 25.01 per cent ST voters (over 4 lakh), far more than Mahtos (Kurmi voters), that form 5.17 per cent (over 84,000). Five-time MLA Champai da has been a statehood movement leader in his youth and has a strong tribal base across Kolhan which tilted the scales in his favour,” the veteran said.
Astik Mahto was considered for splitting BJP candidate and sitting MP Bidyut Baran Mahto’s Kurmi votes, but the JMM finally decided against it because Babu da, as Astik is known in JMM circles, had switched over from the JMM to the Ajsu some years ago and came back to the tribal party fold as late as September 2018.
Five-time Seraikela MLA Champai did not wish to be bracketed exclusively as a tribal leader, perhaps conscious of a many general urban voters. “I want to fight of rights of those oppressed and exploited during BJP’s misrule,” he said.
JMM general-secretary and spokesperson Vinod Pandey said they had studied socio-demographic conditions well and other factors such as farmer distress and tribal resentment. “Champai da is the face of JMM there and we are confident of victory,” he said.
Despite the BJP’s appeal, the JMM has a steady base in Jamshedpur LS seat. In 2014, JMM’s nominee, former Tata Steel senior executive Niroop Mahanty, a political greenhorn, had polled 1,38,109 (13.19 per cent) despite the Modi wave.