Enthused with a huge turnout of over 2 lakh crowd at the Ulgulan Nyay Maharally in Prabhat Tara Ground in Ranchi on Sunday, Kalpana Soren, wife of former chief minister Hemant Soren on Monday claimed INDIA bloc will sweep the Lok Sabha polls in the state.

“Just wait for June 4 (day when votes would be counted), INDIA bloc will sweep the Lok Sabha polls in Jharkhand. People are eager to give a befitting reply to the Centre for sending popular leaders like Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal to jail,” said Kalpana Soren to reporters at Ranchi.

Independent political writers associated with Hindi vernaculars admitted that the turnout even surpassed that of the Prime Minister function in September 2018.

“The crowd was well over 2.5 lakh which braved the over 40 degree Celsius scorching heat at the ground in Ranchi. We were there also during the September 2018 function in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched nationally the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme at the same venue. But this crowd surpassed that,” said a political writer based in Ranchi.

He admitted that it was not a political rally. “The 2018 was not a political rally but the BJP under Raghubar Das (he was the chief minister then) had mobilized all its resources to draw the crowd. Even if INDIA bloc parties had arranged the crowd, they remained in the ground for nearly two hours to listen to the speeches of Sunita Kejriwal and Kalpana Soren before starting to leave the ground. It shows that they have managed to connect with the masses,” said the writer.

The rally was planned by Kalpana Soren’s new team which was the same team which had planned Hemant Soren’s poll strategy during the 2019 polls. “Complete preparation of the rally was done under the supervision of Kalpana Soren aided by the team. The team helped her personally contact each of the INDIA bloc leaders over phone and also send invitations. This was confirmed by former Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav,” said a top JMM leader.

“In fact reading out the letter from Hemant Soren incarcerated(under judicial custody in Birsa Munda Central Jail since February) was aimed at connecting with the masses playing the emotional card. The speech which is attracting huge followers on X (formerly Twitter) is evident that the plot was successful,” added the same leader.

The rally was also aimed at snubbing the BJP and its allies (AJSU) remarks that INDIA bloc parties were not united.

“Presence of almost all the INDIA bloc senior leaders at one stage sent the message that all were united to fight against the BJP and this message would reap dividends in all the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Jharkhand,” said JMM central general secretary and spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya on Monday.

He claimed the scuffle between the Congress Chhatra candidate’s supporters and alleged RJD supporters was sponsored by the BJP.