The results of the Assembly elections for Jharkhand are set to be declared today. The history of the state of Jharkhand is one of the short-lived governments and intermittent periods of President’s rule. There have been three such phases thus far. In fact, the BJP government with Raghubar Das as Chief Minister in Jharkhand is the first to have completed its tenure of five years since the state was created in 2000.
Babulal Marandi was the first Chief Minister of the State and he was from the BJP. The BJP remained in power until the first Assembly elections were held in the state in 2005. The first Assembly of Jharkhand was constituted on the basis of the 2000 Bihar Legislative Elections and served until the election of the next in 2005. Even before Jharkhand went to polls for the first time, it already had two Chief Ministers. Marandi served for a period of almost 2 and a half years while Arjun Munda served in the position for almost 2 years.
The Assembly that was elected after Jharkhand as a newly created state went to polls for the first time was a hung assembly. Within the next four years, Jharkhand saw four governments. The first and the fourth had Shibu Soren from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha as the Chief Minister. The second saw Arjun Munda of the BJP return as the Chief Minister for a period of one and a half years. Madhu Koda, then an independent candidate, served in the position for a period of two years. In the end, Shibu Soren, whose first stint had lasted only 10 days return for about 5 months before President’s Rule was declared in the state.
The state went to polls again in 2009. Shibu Soren’s third stint as Chief Minister lasted two days more than 5 months and then President’s rule was declared once again for the next 3 months. Arjun Munda then returned to serve as Chief Minister for 2 and a half years before President’s Rule was declared again for almost six months. Then, Hemant Soren, the son of Shibu Soren, took charge as Chief Minister for the rest of the tenure of the Third Legislative Assembly. The political instability came to an end when Raghubar Das took charge as the Chief Minister in 2014 and became the first man to serve his full term in the state.
Interestingly, Jharkhand has never had a Congress government in the history of the state’s existence. Out of the 13 times, the state changed power and/or Chief Ministers, the state had a BJP CM 5 times, President’s Rule 3 times, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha CM 4 times and once, an Independent candidate as CM.
Before BJP was elected in 2014, Jharkhand saw one its most politically unstable period.
From 2009 to 2014, Jharkhand had 3 different Chief Ministers and 2 periods of President’s Rule.
During the 19 years of its existence, Jharkhand has already had 6 Chief Ministers with two of them already having multiple stints on the Chair. It has also had three phases of President’s Rule.
BJP’s Raghubar Das already has the distinction of being the first CM to complete a 5-year term. If the 2019 Assembly elections do favour BJP, it will be the first time in history that any party gets a second term after completing his first. However, with Jharkhand’s history, the worst outcome for the state would be a hung assembly.
