THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, Nov 24: Malicious sloganeering by the BJP star campaigners and equally threatening tone, first the slogan ‘Bato Gey To Kato Gey’ and the tone Laat maar maar kar yahan sey ghuspaithiya ko bhaga dengeyn etc (will kick out the infiltrators from here) fell on the face of the BJP here in Palamu.
It was in Palamu’s Hussainabad assembly constituency first that the central leadership of the BJP had landed its chopper here with Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Himanta set a narrative here which was later picked up by India’s Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The home minister even gave a deadline for ‘chun chun kar Bangladeshi ko bhaga denay ka’.
There are only tears for the BJP in Hussainabad. It is not repenting, it is in fact mourning its defeat.
Internal rebellion over candidate selection
A strong section of the BJP leaders had wished this seat not to be won by Kamlesh Kumar Singh who was inducted into the BJP at the behest of the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma some weeks ahead of the polls.
His entry into the saffron camp was seen as an infiltration like that of the infiltration of Bangladeshis as claimed and parroted by the BJP leadership. This section of the BJP just refused to welcome Kamlesh.
It was Himanta who in his public speech in the Hussainabad assembly constituency had said “Kamlesh ji and Sonal (Kamlesh’s son) bhaiya had met me in Assam and there I wished Kamlesh Ji to join the BJP.”
Himanta went on to say Kamlesh accepted his offer and joined the BJP. Here Himanta tried to give an impression in the meeting that it was he only who got Kamlesh into the BJP fold. This further enraged and fumed the BJP leaders here.
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Rebel leaders sabotage BJP’s plan
Kamlesh joining the BJP saw an instant revolt. He went out to woo the disgruntled party leaders and workers but in vain.
Vinod Singh and Sanjay Kumar Singh both senior leaders of the BJP declined to withdraw from the poll arena despite BJP’s cajoling and coaxing them.
BJP leadership knew it would be too hard for Kamlesh to sail through so the BJP brought in here its entire brigade like Himanta Biswa Sarma, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Raj Nath Singh, Yogi Adityanath etc just to defuse the revolt. The revolt didn’t calm down. It zoomed with every passing day. It grew stronger and stronger.
Soon after November 13 polling, it was a public gossip here in Daltonganj about the BJP losing its Hussainabad seat.
The rebels too knew they were not going to win but they were more than convinced that they would write the chapter of defeat for Kamlesh. And they wrote it. The rebels just wanted it to achieve. They brushed aside the loss of the BJP here. For the rebels the BJP candidate was a thorn in their flesh.
RJD’s Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav routed Kamlesh by little over 20,000 votes. Yadav’s victory was buzzing right from the day Kamlesh was launched by the BJP.
Yadav capitalized the votes of the Yadavs and the Muslims. The other deprived classes too voted for him.
Polarization is not enough
Further the BJP brigade from Himanta to Yogi harped here on the malice towards the Muslims even promising to rechristen Hussainabad as some Hindu city, completely forgetting that people of Hussainabad still languish for the Japla Cement factory that is now a forgotten chapter here and they want some industry to come up here as a substitute for their Japla Cement factory instead of this bias against the Muslims.
Here in Hussainabad assembly constituency Muharram mourning is watched by Hindu men and women in huge numbers.
Too much of Hindu-Muslim in Hussainabad assembly constituency and a robust revolt within the BJP made this seat to go to the RJD after a decade or so.
The BJP brigade didn’t touch the issue of the migration of workers. They chose to talk about infiltration. Hussainabad voters were not the least convinced.
The BJP has learnt a lesson here. The lesson is bitter. A tongue slashing of a particular community never makes a winning agenda.
