The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) coalition led by JMM’s Hemant Soren cleared the majority mark of 41 in the 81-member assembly of the tribal-dominated state Jharkhand, in the recently concluded state assembly elections.
The reason for the major failing of Bharatiya Janata Party and it’s alliance is drawn as the absence of an effective leadership at the local level, which congressmen always had up on their card deck.
As quoted in an online edition of The Pioneer, few congressmen credited veteran Congress leader Subodhkant Sahay for playing his role well as a strong local leader. He established strong bonds with as many as 400 civil society organisations and arranged at least three meetings at regular intervals with all of them. In several cases they met some better organized and vocal organisations for six-seven times.
Sahay, former Cabinet Minister for Tourism and a local leader from Ranchi, has spent most of his political career in intervening and mediating on social and political issues of importance for the State.
Continuing with the same during the meeting, he repeatedly addressed the failure of the Raghubar Das Government on the electricity production front and the apathy of the Government towards the tribal groups.
Instead of focusing on mega shows to woo the potential voters, Congressmen including Sahay chose to read peoples’ psyche, identify critical fundamental issues affecting them and then accessing people directly or through meaningful social groups. This gave him a headway over BJP’s high profile para-gliders.
In the past as well, Subodh Kant Sahay was actively involved in the Non-Aligned Student and Youth Organisation (NASYO). He participated in Jai Prakash Movement of 70s and was groomed under the tutelage of Janta party stalwarts like Chandrashekhar Singh, Satyendra Narain Sinha & Thakur Prasad.
