Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren have emerged as the power couple who paved Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) road to victory in the Assembly Elections. Dubbed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as ‘Bunty aur Babli,’ the duo bagged the Jharkhand Chief Minister’s crown for the second consecutive time with apparent ease.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his wife, legislator Kalpana Soren, led the campaign trail with vigor, holding nearly 200 election rallies after the polls were announced. Kalpana, who entered politics earlier this year following her husband’s arrest, played a pivotal role alongside Hemant in mobilizing grassroots support.
A JMM worker told PTI in Gandey, Kalpana Soren was often referred to as ‘helicopter madam,’ a term coined by the BJP to suggest she was an outsider, unlike local resident Muniya Devi. Despite this label, the worker expressed confidence, saying, “Kalpana may close the gap in the coming rounds.”
According to the Election Commission of India’s website, JMM was leading in 34 out of the 43 seats it contested as of 3:30 p.m. Pictures of jubilant party workers surfaced across the state, showing supporters bursting crackers and distributing sweets in anticipation of a landslide victory.
The party’s performance holds special significance, given that prominent leaders like Sita Soren, Champai Soren, and Lobin Hembrom switched sides at the eleventh hour.
The BJP’s star-studded campaign team, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, failed to dislodge the JMM-led government. Despite emphasizing issues like Hindutva, corruption, infiltration, and tribal rights, voters resonated more with the Sorens’ narrative.
The husband-and-wife duo successfully leveraged tribal sentiments, particularly in the wake of Hemant Soren’s incarceration by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.
Poll analysts noted that Hemant and Kalpana Soren’s strategy effectively generated a wave of sympathy among tribal voters. Combined with the BJP’s struggle to counter anti-incumbency sentiment, these factors thwarted the party’s bid to form a government.
In the Barhait assembly constituency, Hemant Soren led by 37,334 votes against the BJP’s Gamliyel Hembrom. Meanwhile, Kalpana Soren, who played a critical role in revitalizing the JMM post-Hemant’s arrest, maintained a lead of 9,361 votes after the 19th round of counting.
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