Jharkhand to also witness ‘Operation Lotus’?

New Delhi: JMM and Congress leaders running the government in Jharkhand have lost their sleep, due to two recent political developments. The first incident is from Maharashtra. There, the Shiv Sena, which is running the government out of the coalition of three parties, has broken down and about twothirds of its MLAs have rebelled. If BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ is successful in Maharashtra, then this operation will happen in Jharkhand too. There is little chance of break in JMM running the government in Jharkhand, but many MLAs of its ally Congress are already in touch with BJP and just as in Maharashtra after two attempts, there could be a success in the third attempt, in the same way after two failed attempts in Jharkhand, there may be a third attempt in the next few days.

The second event is BJP’s move to make a tribal president. The BJP has nominated Draupadi Murmu from the Santhal tribal community of Odisha, who was the governor of Jharkhand, as its presidential candidate and she is sure to win. With this one decision, BJP has changed its image of being anti-tribal. The tribal MLAs of Jharkhand will also have no problem in going with the BJP now. Keep in mind that in the last election, BJP had won 25 seats, out of which only two tribals won. Later, with the joining of Babulal Marandi, the number of its tribal MLAs increased to three. By making the first non-tribal chief minister, the image of BJP had become antitribal, which will change now.

That is why the round of speculation has started in Jharkhand from now on. Congress MLAs had come to Delhi on Wednesday on the call of the party high command, but discussions started in the state that they would meet BJP leaders in Delhi. However, a situation of ‘Operation Lotus’ not being successful is being created that a by-election is being held in a seat in the state, on which there is a strong possibility of a Congress victory. If Congress wins, then its number of MLAs will increase and then it will be a little more difficult to break two-thirds of its MLAs.