Mentored by Shibu Soren, Bjp's Sunil Soren banks on young voters in third battle: Dumka

DEOGHAR: In the din surounding JMM patriarch Shibu Soren ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in Dumka on Sunday, few seem to be paying any attention to his main rival. Shibu is revered as a demigod in the tribal heartland and his victory seems to be a foregone conclusion — he has been representing this seat for four decades, losing just three general elections since 1980.

Sunil Soren lost the last two Lok Sabha polls to his mentor, but BJP has reposed faith in the 47-year-old and again fielded him from the Dumka seat.

Sunil first shot to limelight in 2005, who after partying ways from JMM, defeated Shibu’s elder son Durga from the Jama assembly constituency. In 2009 and 2014 polls, Sunil lost to Shibu, but increased his vote share from 1,89,706 in 2009 to 2,96,785 in 2014, beating even Babulal Marandi in the process.

However, unlike 2014, this time he is up against the mahagatbandhan of Congress, JMM, JVM-P and RJD.

Sunil is banking on multiple factors to see him through. “Besides a strong undercurrent in favour of Modi and the state government’s good work, there is also a heavy anti-incumbency wave simmering against Guruji. He has been representing Dumka for 40 years, but the place remains under-developed in all aspects. We are hoping to capitalise on this fact,” he added.

BJP workers are also publicising Guruji’s failing health and poor performance in Parliament among voters. The three seats in Santhal Pargana have 45.5 lakh voters, of which 55.5 % are below 40 years in age. Dumka has about 13.7 lakh voters, with 50% of them being young. They are not in awe of Guruji in the same way as the older ones are and Sunil is banking on this segment to vote him to the Lok Sabha.

“Even in the remotest village in Dumka, youngsters have access to mobile phones and internet. They can no longer be forced to live in the dark ages. They are aware of what’s happening globally and have aspirations to develop,” he said.

BJP has never won the prestigious Dumka seat since Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000 — the saffron party last bagged this seat in 1998 and 1999 when Babulal Marandi (now JVM-P chief) contested on a BJP ticket — and a good performance here will give the saffron party a boost before the assembly elections later this year. For JMM, a loss for Shibu will be a moral defeat taht would be difficult to recover from in six months.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally at Deoghar’s airport ground on Wednesday, BJP workers are upbeat about the possibilities of BJP flags fluttering across Santhal Pargana. Sunil too sounded confident of rocking Guruji’s apple cart in Dumka. “I never lost hope or ditched the party. I kept working silently to fortify my base here. The time has come for BJP flags to flutter in Dumka,” he said.