Amit Shah’s UCC gambit: The masterstroke BJP needs in Jharkhand?

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced the implementation of UCC in Jharkhand if BJP comes to power in the state. (File Photo: PTI)

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s electoral promise to implement the Uniform Civil Code as part of its manifesto for the Jharkhand Assembly elections could prove to be a game-changer for the party that has been struggling to find its feet in a state where it once commanded widespread support.

The tribal community, which has backed the party in three of the four elections the state has seen since its formation in 2000 when it was bifurcated from Bihar, continues to be a dominant force in the state’s electoral arithmetic. Lately though, the BJP has failed to crack this key vote bloc in the state.

In the Assembly elections held in 2019, the BJP managed to win only two of the 28 seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes, resulting in its ouster from power. Again, in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, the INDIA bloc won all five seats reserved for STs in the state.

It is in this context that the BJP’s decision to announce UCC in Jharkhand assumes significance. Since its below-par performance in key states in the Lok Sabha, the BJP has been on an overdrive in its bid to regain lost ground and unite all Hindu votes – a decisive factor that brought it to power at the Centre in 2014 and again in 2019.

The announcement of a UCC rollout, thus, fits nicely into the BJP’s larger plan of consolidating with Jharkhand as its perfect laboratory. According to government data cited by CNN-News18, the state has around 4 percent Christians, around 15 percent Muslims, about 30-32 percent tribal population, while the rest are Hindus, making them and the tribal population a decisive factor in the state.

By isolating tribals from the ambit of the proposed UCC, Amit Shah has not only underlined the BJP’s message that it bears no intentions to infringe upon the cultural rights and identity of tribals but also amplified Hindu-majority sentiments by portraying the UCC has a measure that primarily affects only Hindus and Muslims.

In the process, the BJP’s UCC positioning thus resonates with its consistent call for “equal laws for all" while spotlighting Muslim personal law as contrastingly outdated or non-secular.

The UCC push also complements the BJP’s attack against the Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress government for turning a blind eye to infiltrators and overseeing the alleged change in the state’s demography for vote-bank politics.

The primary idea behind Amit Shah’s UCC gambit, however, is wooing back the tribal vote that proved to be its erstwhile pillar of support in the state. The Kolhan region, which accounts for 19 of the 28 seats reserved for STs in the state, is seen as the key to power in the state.

It has been a region of specific focus for the BJP with Prime Minister Narendra Modi already making two visits to the region since September 15. In the 2019 polls, the BJP only managed to win two seats here.

Elections in Jharkhand are scheduled to be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20 while the results will be declared on November 23.