BJP to brainstorm Jharkhand Assembly poll loss, review meetings scheduled

After a poor performance in the Jharkhand Assembly polls, the BJP has decided to call a series of meetings from November 30 to brainstorm the reasons that led to a poor poll show in the tribal-dominated state.
In the recently concluded Assembly polls, Hemant Soren’s JMM-led alliance got a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the BJP-led NDA, which managed only 24 seats.
According to sources, BJP’s Jharkhand unit chief, Babulal Marandi, will be holding one-to-one meetings with all defeated candidates to understand the reason for the defeat.
After holding the marathon review meetings, Jharkhand party leaders are likely to travel to Delhi where they will submit a detailed report to BJP’s top leadership, sources told India Today TV.
In the Assembly polls, the BJP had given the task to its eight MPs and one MP of AJSU to focus on winning the maximum number of seats from their constituencies in the assembly elections. The party leadership had also sought their opinion during the ticket distribution. MPs were also included in the list of star campaigners. But, when the election results came, the performance of all except three was not good.
Union Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament from Koderma, Annapurna Devi, had the best performance. Out of six constituencies of Koderma, the BJP won five seats with a strike rate of 83.33 per cent.
Hazaribagh MP Manish Jaiswal was in the second position with a strike rate of 80 per cent and Chatra MP, Kalicharan Singh, was in third place.
However, MPs from Ranchi, Palamu and Dhanbad were average. The worst performance was of three MPs, including Godda MP Nishikant Dubey.
According to sources, Annapurna Devi’s connection with the people of Koderma played a pivotal role in the party’s success in the region.
Annapurna Devi’s campaign strategy focused on building personal relationships with voters, organising small group meetings, and engaging in one-on-one conversations, sources said, adding that this approach allowed her to understand the concerns and issues of the local population, which in turn helped her to address their problems effectively.
Despite facing stiff competition from Tejashwi Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav, who campaigned extensively in Koderma, the BJP performed well in Koderma, poll data showed.
Sources told India Today that the party’s top leadership will focus on a few aspects, like how many meetings the MPs hold, and how many programmes of people-to-people connect were done by MPs, among others.
In the 2024 polls, the BJP contested 68 seats and registered a 33.18 per cent vote share as compared to JMM’s 23.44 per cent.
The BJP won 21 seats and emerged as the second-largest party.
JMM contested 43 seats and won 34, the highest-ever seats won by the party. The Congress got 16 seats, RJD 4 and the CPI (ML) secured 2 seats in the INDIA bloc.