Are Adivasi voters in Jharkhand swayed by the BJP’s infiltration narrative?

Bhognadih village lies around 400 km from Ranchi. It falls within the Barhait assembly constituency, a longstanding stronghold of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha – Chief Minister Hemant Soren won the Barhait seat in 2014 and 2019, and is contesting it again in the upcoming election on November 20.

The village is historically important. It is the site where Santal Adivasis began their rebellion against the British and other oppressive outsiders in 1855. The rebellion was led by the brothers Sido and Kanhu Murmu whose descendants, a total of 16 families, still live in Bhognadih.

On November 3, one of them, Mandal Murmu, made local headlines when he joined the BJP. The development was startling because Mandal was one of Hemant Soren’s proposers – he had nominated him for the election and signed his nomination papers.

BJP leaders claimed Mandal had switched sides because he endorsed the party’s chief campaign plank: that Muslim “infiltrators” are taking over Adivasi land, thereby reshaping the region’s demography and culture, with the JMM government turning a blind eye to the problem.

On September 15, for instance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a rally at Jamshedpur, “Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators have become a major threat in the Santal Pargana and Kolhan.” While the Santal Pargana is the northeastern part of Jharkhand, home to the Santal Adivasi community, Kolhan is the southern region of the state, where Munda and Ho Adivasi communities live.

Modi claimed the demography of these regions was changing. “The Adivasi population is on the decline, their land is being grabbed,” he said. “The infiltrators are taking control of the panchayat system. The number of atrocities being committed on daughters is rising.” He was echoing claims made by state BJP leaders that Scroll’s previous reporting in Santal Pargana in August found did not hold up.

With elections underway, however, the main question is whether Adivasi supporters of the JMM have been swayed by the BJP’s campaign. Scroll travelled to a few constituencies in the Santal Pargana. We found the BJP’s infiltration claim, while having some resonance on the ground, was not the main issue on the minds of voters.

Civic concerns trump infiltration claims

The day we travelled to Bhognadih, Mandal Murmu was not at home. His relatives offered mixed views on his decision – and their voting preferences.

Shanti Murmu, a woman in her sixties, said she would follow Mandal’s lead since he was the most educated in the family and vote for Gamliyel Hembrom, the BJP candidate from Barhait.

She said the JMM government had not done anything for Adivasi livelihoods. “There is an Eklavya school and a health centre nearby, but it is outsiders who are working at both places and not our people.”

Shanti Murmu also expressed disappointment with the government’s handling of a recent land dispute in the Gaibathan village of Maheshpur, which was portrayed in the media as a communal conflict between Adivasis and Muslims.

A few houses away, however, Sajoni Hembrom, in her seventies, offered a different view. “Mandal’s switch to the BJP has split us descendants politically, but most of us are still loyal to the JMM,” she said.

Hembrom spoke with pride of her family and the community’s history. “We are the descendants of Sido and Kanhu, who chased the British away from this land,” she said. Referring to the symbols of the JMM and the BJP, she added, “The bow and arrow is a part of our ancestral legacy. Why will we leave that behind and pick a lotus flower over it?”

Others in the village were more circumspect. “We are not happy with the current government, they could have done a lot more for roads, health and education,” said Maidesh Hansda. “But we are yet to decide whom to vote for. Villagers will sit together and discuss the matter and then take a call.”

At Patkhasa village, a few kilometres from Bhognadih, a football match was underway. It had been organised by Gamliyel Hembrom, the BJP candidate who is a former school teacher. Men from different communities had gathered to watch the game. While they appeared divided along community lines, their voting preferences were expressed in the language of civic concerns.

Ashraf Ul Haq praised the government’s initiatives to waive electricity bills for 39.44 lakh rural poor consumers and introduce the Maiya Samman Yojana to support women with monthly cash payments. “I am happy, I will vote to keep them in power,” he said. His friend Imran Ansari agreed that the present government had done good work, but added, “they should do more to enable our livelihoods”.

Dhaina Soren, however, expressed disappointment with the government. “Yes, Barhait is a stronghold of the JMM, but Gamliyel Hembrom is from my village so I will support him,” he said. “And maybe things will change for us.”

Adarsh Gupta, another resident of Patkhasa, echoed these complaints. “You go to any neighbouring village, and you will see the roads are so bad, you can’t go there by vehicles or by foot,” he said. “There is a big hospital nearby but there are no good doctors inside. There is no facility for water.”

His friend Tinku Gupta also expressed support for Gamliyel Hembrom, whose wife served as the mukhiya, or chief, of Khairwa panchayat. “As the mukhiya he has done great work for education and infrastructure,” Tinku said. “He started his own school which is free for local kids.”

The neighbouring constituency of Borio threw up a similar trend: most rural voters framed their voting preference in terms of what they thought of the state government’s performance.

At Chasgama village, Parannanda Saha, who runs a grocery store, said, “JMM has provided good schemes for us.” He claimed that while the BJP was good at the Centre, “at the state level we should have a regional party in power, they know the people better”.

His neighbour Tareshwar Saha, however, was more skeptical. “These schemes were only introduced in the last few months,” he said. “Nothing much has changed for us. If the BJP comes to power, we will have better roads and facilities here.”

In the Santal quarter of Chasgama village, Adivasi locals were more enthusiastic about the JMM government and its schemes. “This government has done well, especially considering how two years were taken up by the pandemic,” said Digor Hembrom, who was working on constructing a house using funds from the state government’s Abua Awaas Yojana.

The scheme offered beneficiaries more than Rs 2 lakh for constructing a house, and also provided some funds for labour charges. In contrast, Hembrom said, the Central government’s Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana only provided beneficiaries up to Rs 1.5 lakh. “Those who received the PM yojana have either had to use their own funds or haven’t been able to finish their houses,” he said.

Countering the infiltration narrative

Across both constituencies, voters rarely brought up the BJP’s infiltration narrative on their own in conversations with Scroll.

At a tea shop in the centre of Barhait town, for instance, most people expressed support for the JMM. “The chief minister has done excellent work,” a local businessman named Manoj Kumar said. “Earlier we used to get frequent light cuts but now we have electricity for 23 hours straight.”

He added, “Usually, Adivasis and Muslims support the JMM, and Hindus in the town’s bazaar area support the BJP. But this time I feel the bazaar will also support the JMM and Soren will win by more votes.”

When I asked about the BJP’s infiltration narrative, customers at the tea shop were quick to refute it. “The district administration of Pakur and Sahibganj have officially said they could find no infiltrators,” said Minku Kumar. “There is nothing more to be said on the matter.”

But the JMM is not simply relying on administrative statements – it has crafted a political response to the BJP’s campaign.

At the party office in Borio, Mohammed Ansari, who heads JMM’s town unit, pointed out that Jharkhand shared a border with West Bengal, not Bangladesh, and that it was the mandate of the home ministry to control illegal border crossings.

Further, he argued that it was the BJP that was bringing in outsiders into the region, referring to the party’s strategy of deploying leaders from other states, such as former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to campaign in the Jharkhand election.

“Why aren’t former Jharkhand chief ministers Babulal Marandi, Champai Soren, Arjun Munda or Raghubar Das at the forefront of their election campaign?” he said. “Why are they bringing in ministers from Assam and Rajasthan?”

“You see, they are the ones who are bringing in infiltrators,” he concluded.

Internal rebellion

While the JMM may have found ways to counter the infiltration narrative, in Borio constituency, it is battling the aftermath of a political defection.

In July, the party expelled its MLA Lobin Hembrom after he declared that he would contest the Lok Sabha election from Rajmahal constituency independently. Hembrom had won the Borio seat in the past three elections, but in recent years, had begun to publicly criticise the JMM government. Although he lost the Rajmahal seat, he joined the BJP on August 31 and is contesting the Borio seat as its candidate.

“Lobin ji is a strong candidate,” said a party worker in BJP’s Borio office.

The JMM has fielded Dhananjay Soren, a former district council head who will be making his debut in the assembly election.

Opinion was divided on whether Hembrom’s defection would hurt the JMM’s prospects in the constituency.

“Those who are loyal to Lobin ji, a small base, will continue to vote for him,” said Parannanda Saha, the grocer from Chasgama village. “But most people here are attached to a particular political party and not the representatives.”

His neighbour, however, disagreed. “Lobin tried to raise issues within the party but he was expelled. Now, as the BJP candidate, the people will support him,” said Tareshwar Saha.

All photos by Nolina Minj