The split between former allies BJP and Ajsu Party has thrown the Kurmi community in Ichagarh and Jugsalai Assembly constituencies into focus.

Agriculture hub Ichagarh, around 50km from Jamshedpur, is in Seraikela-Kharsawan district but is among the six Assembly segments of Ranchi Lok Sabha constituency. Of its around 2.5lakh voters, 30 per cent are from the Mahato community, followed by Santhals and other tribals (17 per cent) and Muslims (10 per cent).

Wholesale market hub Jugsalai, part of Jamshedpur city in East Singhbhum, is also one of the six Assembly seats under Jamshedpur Lok Sabha constituency. Reserved for SC candidates, Jugsalai has nearly 3.21 lakh voters with Mahatos forming 25 per cent, followed by Santhals and other tribals at 21 per cent.

What links the two seats is the sizeable Kurmi electorate in both. The Mahato (Kurmi) farming community, part of the powerful OBC electorate in Jharkhand, is said to determine the outcome of both the seats.

This time, the Kurmis, who have a reputation of voting as a community, seem to be confused in both seats. A Kurmi vote split seems imminent.

Vishnu Gorai, a high school teacher in Mango, Jamshedpur, said that in the last three Assembly elections the BJP and Ajsu Party did not allow the Kurmi votes to split. “That’s why they performed well,” he said, pointing to how the BJP’s Sadhu Charan Mahto trounced the JMM’s Sabita Mahto in Ichagarh, and the Ajsu’s Ram Chandra Sahis again beat JMM’s Mangal Kalindi in Jugsalai. “This time, they are no longer allies, and the voters seem to be looking at other prospects,” the teacher said.

Asked how, he said: “The Ajsu and BJP have pitted candidates against each other in both seats, so Kurmi votes will be divided. It will also give a chance to other parties.”

This time, Jugsalai is seeing a BJP-Ajsu Party-JMM three-cornered contest. The BJP has fielded new face Muchiram Bauri, a district president of the BJP Kisan Morcha, against sitting Ajsu Party MLA Ram Chandra Sahis. The BJP-Ajsu tussle could prove advantageous to the JMM’s Mangal Kalindi, who is in the fray this time too.

“Sahisji would have got a good chunk of Kurmi votes and cushion it with traditional BJP votes of the business community in Jugsalai. But this, which ensured his comfortable win in the last elections, won’t happen this year,” said an aide of Sahis.

In Ichagarh, the contest is four-cornered.

Sitting BJP MLA Sadhu Charan Mahato is up against Ajsu’s Harelal Mahato, the JVM’s Arvind Singh Malkhan and the JMM’s Sabita Mahto.

BJP cadres fear that Mahato votes will be cut by Harelal, who is a road contractor and has clout, and by Sabita, widow of respected leader Sudhir Mahato.

“Former MLA Arvind Singh Malkhan will get some upper caste votes too, like always,” said the cadre.

Another Ichagarh insider associated with the BJP said Harelal was hitting Sadhu Charan where it hurt the most: “Sadhu Charan is battling anti-incumbency as he couldn’t fulfil his promise of sorting out the vexed displacement issue near Chandil Dam. Some sponge iron units have closed, leading to unemployment. Harelal in the past few years has emerged as a leading social worker among the Kurmi community. Let’s see which way the wind blows.”

• Jugsalai votes today, Ichagarh on December 12