ROURKELA: Faced with frequent desertion of leaders and cadres, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) seems to be making a last-ditch effort to remain afloat in the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district by focusing on a limited number of Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats in the upcoming panchayat elections.
The party has fielded candidates in 14 of the total 35 ZP seats including two each in Bisra, Lahunipada and Gurundia blocks and one each in Kuanrmunda, Nuagaon, Lathikata, Bonai, Rajgangpur, Kutra, Koida and Subdega. These areas have a significant presence of Panchayat (Extension of the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) gram sabha committees fighting for tribal rights over ‘Jal, Jungle, Zamin’ and grabbing of tribal land by non-tribal people.
The JMM is solely dependent on these issues to sail through the ZP polls. However, sources said, poll prospects do not look promising for the party due to its precarious organisational strength and absence of any star campaigner.
Birmitrapur assembly constituency bordering Jharkhand used to be a JMM stranglehold with George Tirkey retaining the seat from 1995 to 2004 for the party and Nihar Surin winning in 2004. But both the leaders left JMM along with their supporters. Sebian Aind, who unsuccessfully contested the Birmitrapur seat in 2014 and 2019, was the latest to desert JMM worsening woes for the outfit.
In 2017, the JMM had contested in 11 ZP seats and polled a total of just 19,616 votes against 92,492 votes bagged by winning candidates of different parties. District president of JMM Patras Ekka, a former ZP member from Gurundia-A and the incumbent panchayat samiti vice-chairman of Gurundia, said tribal people have natural rights over ‘Jal, Jungle, Zamin’ and are emotionally connected to the JMM as it is the only party fighting to stop the exploitation of the masses.
“In Sundargarh, grabbing of tribal and government land by non-tribal and capitalist forces has increased. The State and Central governments have failed to ensure individual and community forest rights to tribal people. The vote share of JMM would rise in the upcoming elections,” he asserted. JMM’s Odisha secretary and candidate from Bisra-A ZP seat Letha Tirkey also claimed that the party would put up a better fight this time.