Jharkhand chief minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren, here on Wednesday in support of Trinamul, recounted his experience of defeating the BJP in his state’s Assembly elections in 2019.

Soren said winning Lok Sabha seats can’t guarantee Narendra Modi’s party a victory in Bengal Assembly polls. He reminded the crowd that despite winning 12 of the 14 Jharkhand seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP lost the state elections. The JMM, in alliance with the Congress and the RJD, bagged 47 seats to topple the BJP government, and Soren became the chief minister.

“These people (BJP) won a few seats in Bengal in the last Lok Sabha polls and they have started dreaming of winning the Bengal Assembly polls, too. It was the same situation we faced in Jharkhand. The BJP had won 12 seats out of 14 (seats). But in the Assembly polls we forced them to wipe their tears (to cry). The same thing will happen in Bengal,” Soren said.

Soren’s speech comes in the backdrop of BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, playing on the party’s success in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and claiming Trinamul would be wiped out in the Bengal polls.

“Unishe half, ekushe saaf (Half in 2019, wiped out in 2021)” is the slogan that BJP leaders have been harping on since the party bagged 18 of the 42 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal.

Soren, who spoke at three campaign rallies in Purulia and Bankura in support of Trinamul candidates on Wednesday, said together with Mamata Banerjee the JMM will uproot the BJP from the soil of Bengal.

The JMM leader debunked the BJP’s “double engine” government theory. “I witnessed a double engine government in my state. The BJP promised to increase the income of farmers twice, but did nothing. The concept of a double engine is not to serve the country but to loot it.”

He echoed Mamata’s concern that the BJP would use money power to buy polling agents of rivals. “They (BJP) will first try to purchase the voters. If they fail, they will then try to purchase the MLAs and later to purchase the MPs too,” Hemant said.

Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha enjoys some support in pockets of Jungle Mahal and amongst tribal voters, many of whom have links to the neighbouring state.

Soren travelling to Bengal to address rallies in support of the Trinamul is significant because he had addressed a JMM rally in Jhargram in January and spoken about fighting the Assembly elections.

“Hemant Soren’s speech in Jhargram had made the party leadership reach out to him and today’s rally was the outcome of that effort,” said a senior Trinamul leader and added that the JMM has some influence among the Kurmi community in the Jungle Mahal districts of Jhargram, Purulia and Bankura.

The performance of Trinamul in Jungle Mahal is critical because the party had lagged behind the BJP in 31 of the 40 Assembly seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.