Homecoming: 14 years on, Marandi is back in BJP as the party's tribal face

Former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi’s political career, so to speak, started in the 1970s, when tribal leader and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren’s movement against landlords and moneylenders was in full swing.

Marandi, who recently returned to the BJP after a separation of 14 years, was inspired by Soren’s speeches. He had reasons to be because he, like Soren, belonged to a poor Santhal family and was trapped in debt.

Once Soren told him that whenever moneylenders intimidated his (Marandi’s) family, he should run after them with a hatchet. Such advice blends into the modes of feeling and operation in tribal areas, and it worked well with Marandi.

But their relationship navigated twists and turns when Marandi associated himself with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which had no toehold among tribals at that time. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave him the ticket to contest election against Soren thrice till 1998. In 1991 and 1996 he lost, on the second occasion by just 5,000-odd votes. But the party recognised his abilities and made him president of the BJP’s Jharkhand unit. The BJP won 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the Jharkhand region in the 1998 election (Jharkhand hadn’t become a state then) under his leadership and this time he defeated Soren. Marandi joined the Union government and in 2000 became the first chief minister of Jharkhand.

Marandi has a strong influence among tribal communities in Jharkhand, especially in the Santhal Pargana area. RSS Ideologue Govindacharya says because of his simplicity and the ability to reach out to them, Marandi was the most suitable candidate for the office of organising secretary when the “Vananchal Movement” was going on and he served as organising secretary of the Jharkhand region of the Vishva Hindu Parishad. He joined the BJP later.

He was not happy in the BJP in one sense. He even regretted that when he moved to Jharkhand as chief minister after relinquishing his position in the Union ministry he had to give up his bungalow in New Delhi. But another BJP chief minister on a similar trajectory was allowed to retain his.

However, he had a happy stint as chief minister because there was nobody he could be compared with as he had no predecessor. The most visible improvement under him was that of the road network in the new state. He also initiated the idea of developing Greater Ranchi and, though it had failed, senior BJP leader L K Advani inaugurated the project online.

The proposal of an All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences also came a cropper and he only improved the infrastructure of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

However, Marandi had to resign in 2003 due to an internal conflict in the BJP, with pressure from coalition allies, primarily the Janata Dal (United). He made way for Arjun Munda, who was close to Rajnath Singh. Political observers say had he been astute, he could have saved his position. His bureaucrats misguided him.

Marandi’s party, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), merged itself with the BJP recently in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. On this occasion he acknowledged his debt to the BJP. 

Shah had been working on his return to the party since 2014, when he (Shah) became BJP president. It was in 2014 that Marandi lost the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. The BJP offered him a Rajya Sabha seat but he refused.

The BJP felt the need for a strong tribal face in Jharkhand after the defeat in the Assembly elections last year. Is Marandi strong enough? The vote percentage of his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha in reserved seats for the scheduled tribes was lower than in those unreserved. Political analysts of Jharkhand say Marandi has acceptability only among tribals but a comparatively young leader like Munda has a great reach among tribals as well as non-tribals.

It is to be seen whether he will be Leader of the Opposition or president of the BJP’s Jharkhand unit.