ROURKELA: Once a force to reckon with in the Chhota Nagpur Plateau, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is on the verge of being wiped out from the political landscape of tribal-dominated Sundargarh which shares border with Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum and Simdega districts.
With no ideological binding force or popular face to keep its remaining flocks together, the days of JMM are literally numbered in Sundargarh district. In fact, there is no or little enthusiasm among the dejected JMM rank and file to face the upcoming elections amid the party’s rapidly eroding organisational base.
JMM’s Sundargarh district president Patras Ekka blamed a host of leaders including former MLAs George Tirkey, Halu Mundari, Mansid Ekka and Nihar Surin for choosing personal gains over JMM and joining other parties. He said talks are underway for an alliance between JMM and Congress. Parallel efforts are also on to field candidates in Birmitrapur, Rajgangpur, Raghunath (RN) Pali and Bonai Assembly constituencies. However, the JMM has no plan to contest from the Sundargarh Lok Sabha (LS) seat.
While Patras claimed the JMM still has dedicated voters across the district, political observers said the party’s vote banks are scattered and sparse in all the seven Assembly constituencies of Sundargarh LS seat. Over the last two decades, the base of JMM has weakened to such an extent that it is not even in a position to effectively play any decisive role in the elections in any of the constituencies.
They noted that JMM’s most potent stronghold was Birmitrapur (Scheduled Tribe) which it last won in 2004. But in 2019 election, the party was relegated to the fourth position with its candidate losing his security deposit. JMM had won RN Pali twice when it was reserved for STs. But the party lost its hope long back after RN Pali was reserved for SCs in 2008 delimitation.
Amid mass exodus of workers and leaders before every election, the JMM has stopped fielding candidates in Rajgangpur and Bonai Assembly constituencies after 2014. The precarious situation of JMM can be gauged from the fact that in 2022 panchayat elections, the party could field candidates in only six of the 35 Zilla Parishad seats. The JMM candidates together polled around 5,500 votes.
Observers said the JMM itself is to blame for its plight. The party is now largely confined to the PESA gram sabha committees and pursuing a disruptive agenda of self-rule which keeps on alienating progressive tribals from it.
However, Patras hoped the JMM would one day revive itself. “A day will come when the dark clouds would disappear with the entry of educated people in JMM to fight the growing exploitation of poor tribal masses by the ruling parties,” he added.