Maharashtra, Jharkhand Assembly elections: People’s issues missing yet again
If one looks at the tone and tenor of the election campaign in Maharashtra’s severely hit farm crisis regions, it would be difficult to discern that between January and June 2024, 557 farmers committed suicide in the state’s Amravati district alone.
That the farm crisis is not a top-of-the-mind poll issue in the region is to understate a point. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath chose Amravati to launch a scathing attack on Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge for reasons that had nothing to do with the current economic crisis.
Addressing a poll rally there, he claimed that despite suffering a personal loss, Kharge had conveniently forgotten the history of the Razakars under the Nizam of Hyderabad and was suppressing this truth, fearing he might lose Muslim votes.
Mallikarjun Kharge was born in the Varawatti village of Bhalki Taluk in Bidar district in 1942. When he was six years old, his family became a victim of riots in Bidar by the Razakars, a paramilitary wing of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, an Islamic political party in the Hyderabad princely state of British India.
While this was unfolding, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis slammed AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi – a contender in the Maharashtra elections – for being `descendants of `Razakars’, who tortured the people of Marathwada.’
In other words, there are no issues that concern the common man – only identity politics and emotional issues matter.
Same story in Jharkhand
Jharkhand presents pretty much the same picture. In the run up to the poll campaign, BJP has trained its guns on `illegal immigration’ in the state with PM Modi leading the charge saying that tribal daughters were cheated in the name of marriage and their land was being snatched.
All top BJP leaders visiting Jharkhand have harped on this theme, which helped the party big time in Assam and some other border states. They are hoping that it works in Jharkhand as well.
On the flip side, all economic parameters show Jharkhand to be among the most backward states. It has a higher rural poverty rate than other Indian states. It is ranked third lowest in monthly per capita income, and seventh highest in the number of people living below the poverty line
Political analyst Afsar Hussain believes for the BJP, identity politics and emotional issues invariably work, so “why talk of inflation, unemployment or the travails of the common man when jihad is a readymade panacea to woo voters successfully.”
The ruling JMM is trying hard to shift the focus away from such emotive themes. JMM leader Kalpana Soren has claimed that the BJP was `scared’ of an increasing number of beneficiaries of various welfare schemes introduced by her government like the Sarvjan Pension Yojana and Mainya Samman Yojana.
Asked about the BJP claims on immigration, she counter questioned: ask the BJP if they have any figures on illegal immigration.
Economist Anand Kumar, formerly of JNU, prefers to look at the larger picture. “People don’t believe in trickle down economic theories any longer. They have been in vogue since1947. Voters want immediate economic gains. So, two things happen: people want freebies, and they are impressed by emotive issues and identity politics, which politicians are glad to dole out in search of power.”
That’s probably true. Afterall, identity politics were considered a bit of rarity in assembly elections, which seek to elect purely local governments.