The BJP has already started working on Jharkhand with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with key party strategist and Union home minister Amit Shah visiting mineral-rich Chaibasa on January 7.

A Ranchi-based senior BJP leader said that the visit is part of the party strategy to win back the 130 seats across the country where it finished second in the 2019 Parliamentary elections.

“We lost Singhbhum to the Congress and Rajmahal to the JMM in the 2019 Parliamentary polls in Jharkhand. Singhbhum’s seat is crucial for us as we won it in 2014. Amit Shahji with his political acumen will try to plan a strategy to win back the voters,” said the leader.

Significantly, Congress candidate Geeta Koda, wife of former chief minister Madhu Koda who is facing allegations of corruption in coal and iron ore mining during his tenure as chief minister between 2006-2008, had defeated former BJP state president and sitting MP Laxman Gilua by a margin of 72,155 votes in 2019 in the Singhbhum (ST reserved) seat. Geeta had polled 49 per cent of the votes (4,31,815) while deceased Laxman Gilua polled 41 per cent votes (3,59,660).

“That the BJP is keen on wresting back Singhbhum parliamentary seat became evident when two Union ministers were sent by party high command in August this year, in the form of Union minister of state for tribal affairs, “Renuka Singh Saruta and Union minister of state in railways, coal and mines, Raosaheb Dadarao Danve. They had held extensive meetings with the local leaders and also with the state BJP leaders and given their feedback to the party high command,” said the BJP leader.

On Friday, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and state president Deepak Prakash and former chief minister Babulal Marandi visited Chaibasa and held a meeting with local leaders about the planned meeting.

“We are yet to get the minute-to-minute schedule of Amit Shahji. But have got intimation from party headquarters about the planned visit to Chaibasa on January 7 where he would be addressing a public rally at Tata College Ground,” Prakash said.

The BJP Rajya Sabha MP claimed that the three-year misrule of the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government in the state has given the BJP enough opportunities to win back the trust of Singhbhum voters. “People are fed up with corruption done under the state government and this will work in our favour in the 2024 election, both in the Parliament and Assembly polls,” Prakash said.

Geeta, however, sounded unfettered with the development. “We have the support of all sections, particularly the tribals (58 per cent of the voters). The work of the state government in sending recommendations for Sarna code inclusion in the Census, and OBC reservation to the Centre has made tribal and OBC voters solidly behind us. The truth is that the Centre has failed to act on the recommendations which have exposed their real intention and this will work in our favour.

“That the BJP leaders are sending their poll strategists to Singhbhum is enough indication that they are sensing trouble in this constituency,” she countered.

JMM central general secretary and spokesperson, Supriyo Bhattacharjee also agreed with the Congress MP.

“Now BJP leaders are forced to go from constituency to constituency seeking votes. But this will not pay dividends as people-centric policies of the Hemant Soren government and step-motherly treatment by Centre government to Jharkhand problems has made people realise their game plans,” Bhattacharjee said.

BJP won 12 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.