Did non-tribal CM, anti-incumbency sink the BJP in Jharkhand?

New Delhi, Dec 23: The Congress-JMM alliance along with the RJD has touched the majority mark in Jharkhand. It appears as though the anti-incumbency wave has gone against the BJP.

The magic number in the 81 member Jharkhand assembly is 81 and the Congress alliance at the moment is leading in 42. The BJP, on the other hand, has 29 and even if it were to tie up with the AJSU, which has 3 now, it would not be enough for it to form the government.

As of now, the BJP is leading in 29, the JMM, 25, Congress, 13, RJD, 5, AJSU, 3, JCVMP, 4 and others 4.

Some of the major national issues were not part of the narrative in Jharkhand. For instance, the issues such as Ayodhya or Article 370 did not strike a chord with the voter, thus making it an extremely local election.

For the BJP, the result was largely dependant on whether the non-tribal votes had consolidated or not.

The BJP has a non-tribal CM candidate. The tribal votes make up for 29 per cent o the electorate.

Hence, it could be said that the BJP took a gamble in going with a non-tribal candidate.

The party was hoping that this gamble would pay off like it did in Haryana. In Haryana, it was the non-Jat consolidation that helped the BJP win the elections. For the BJP, the task was an uphill one. It was also battling anti-incumbency and the party also went in for the election without an ally. The AJSU broke away from the BJP before the elections.