The results of Assembly polls 2019 show that the ruling BJP led by Chief Minister Raghubar Das suffered a clean defeat in Jharkhand.

The victory goes to the JMM led pre-poll allies Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal. Now all eyes are on Governor Draupadi Murmu. Since the ruling BJP is far behind the magic figure of 42 in 81 member Assembly, Governor Murmu is expected to invite ex-CM Hemant Soren to take oath as the CM of the state again.

In 2014, the BJP had swept the poll under 'Modi wave' and formed for the first time a majority government led by the CM Das. Five years later, though the party emerged as a single largest party, it is miles away from the majority. 

The central question is why the BJP which had recorded a grand victory five years ago slipped so low in Jharkhand? The reasons were far too many.

One, the BJP high command comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah preferred to select, support,rely and carry faith on an incompetent party man Raghubar Das despite a number of complaints against him by many party leaders from time to time. Why did they do so remains to be examined?   

Two, Das failed to honour PM Modi's popular slogan; 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas"(Support of All: Development of all) as he could not even keep party men together. And instead of relying on his own Cabinet Ministers, he turned against many of them. 

In consequence, while many committed party men turned against him, Minister Saryu Rai was compelled to revolt against Das. Aware of Das's foolishly hard line against Rai who had raised many irregularities and issues of corruption, the people came out in support of him.

Three, Das faced a serious charge in public that he failed to end 'terror' in the form of "threat of ransom among builders/contractors and transfer-posting of officials/police personnel indulged in by his own family members including his son" in Jamshedpur. This was one important reason why he lost in his Jamshedpur(East) where he had won five consecutive times in the past.

Four, Das who turned out to be the first CM to have completed a five-year term, was expected to govern by selecting a team of credible and efficient officials. What did he do? His team of officials was never free from the reach of corrupt contractors and builders.    

Worse, Das selected controversial officials to run the government. For instance, to begin with he appointed controversial IAS officer Raj Bala Verma, who had been considered as ex-CM Lalu Yadav's 'favourite', as Chief Secretary.