What Saranda means for the Congress

Published here
Manoharpur, April 9

Moransingh Bodra (25) smiled from ear to ear when asked whether he would vote this election. "Abhi toh bindaas hai," said the youngster, returning on his bicycle from the Thursday market in Bhalulata, on the Orissa side of the state's border with Jharkhand. His two other friends disappeared into the background without a word when they saw a stranger.

That moment encapsulated the mood within the 850 sq km Saranda forest in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum:an exuberance for newly-acquired freedoms mixed with a distrust of what the future brings. Moransingh is from Tirilposi, a village within Digha panchayat of Manoharpur block, once the site of permanent structures that constituted the Eastern Regional Bureau headquarters of the CPI-Maoist.

The Congress is hoping that the people of the Singhbhum Lok Sabha constituency will reward it on April 17 for the Saranda Development Plan, inaugurated on December 2, 2011. The Rs. 250 crore SDP came after a massive operation by security forces which sanitised the area. A total of 36,215 people would benefit from the plan, for 56 villages in six panchayats of Manoharpur block.

In a lot of ways, this election is a landmark one for Saranda: villages like Tirilposi were forced to boycott elections during the 10-odd years that the Maoists made the Sal forest their home. Voters' identity cards have reportedly been issued even in some of the previously-unrecognised Jharkhandi villages, about 110 in number. En route Digha village, this reporter came across Birendra Kumar, the Block Development Officer, returning after a visit in a car, with no security - a far cry from late 2011, when a Deputy Commissioner reached Tirilposi for the first time in 15 years.

However, thanks to strife within the local unit of the Congress, the party may not be able to scoop up the benefit of the SDP.

On April 5, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, who has been the driving force behind the SDP, visited Manoharpur for the first time as a Congress leader. "During his multiple visits here, Jairam Ramesh never did a single meeting under the Congress' banner within Saranda. He wanted people to see the development first. But now, whatever he says, the people will be willing to do," said Sushil Barla, general secretary of the district unit of the Congress on the eve of Jairam's visit.

By the time the minister arrived the next morning to campaign for his party's candidate Chitrasen Sinku, less than 10 people from Digha panchayat - at the heart of the SDP - had made it to the meeting. Jairam addressed a motley crowd which mostly comprised the residents of Manoharpur town. Local Congress leaders blame poor communication; villagers point out infighting within the party meant that no transportation was arranged for the people of the area, who live more than 50 km from Manoharpur.

Another issue that could cripple the Congress in the region is the rumour that the party has decided to extend tacit support to Geeta Kora, wife of former chief minister Madhu. That the Congress has a lot of work to do is obvious from the results of the 2009 polls - its candidate came third with 95,604 votes; Madhu Kora won by polling 2.47 lakhs. During conversations with villagers, this reporter noticed a number of them did not know when the elections would be and those who did knew only the name of Madhu Kora, who is from Jagannathpur, adjacent the SDP area: the Congress faces the onerous task of educating this new electorate about its candidate. At least four polling booths were shifted within Saranda for security reasons. This means, for example, that the people of Kumdi will now have to travel 28 km to vote in Chotanagara.

Of course, a number of villages - most notably populated by adivasi Christians, like Digha - have always voted for the Congress. "We will vote for the Congress this time, too. But we expect more from the party," said an angry Niyaran Topno, the Munda of Digha. He was angry because the CRPF was offering only Rs. 120 to labourers who helped clear the area around a helipad for the movement of poll officials. "Even the MNREGA offers Rs. 138 a day. This is the same attitude adopted by contractors, who are also offering Rs. 120 for SDP work," he said.

Incomplete work could actually end up backfiring on the Congress. "None of the Additional Rozgar Sewaks - a man and a woman - appointed in each village have received their Rs. 3,000 pay in the last 14 months," said Jablun Dodray, who holds the position for Digha. He plans to vote for the Congress. Ten Integrated Development Centres, where multiple government offices would be located, were planned; only the one at Digha has been completed and no other is in the works, even. "I will be the first to accept that work has been slow: only five of 11 roads have been built. However, the work must go on, we cannot let it pause," said minister Ramesh at Manoharpur.

There is also a fear of what lies ahead. "Nineteen mining MoUs were signed within Saranda; they are in various stages of clearances. People have always worried whether the SDP will clear the way for mining here," said a political leader. Madhu Kora, for one, is in support of mining: "The constituency is spread over 6000-7000 sq kms and is a tough challenge for a legislator. However, if mining were to start here, it would help the people with jobs," he said. Rayal Nag, one of the 200 selected from Saranda as part of the SDP under a SAIL-sponsored for an ITI course in Orissa's Rourkela too, wants a job. "If mines open, I might get a job with the degree I am earning," said Nag, who hails from Digha.

In adjacent Porahat, they look at Saranda and hope development will reach at some point. In some ways, Porahat is worse off than Saranda - for instance, Maoists forced to leave the latter took refuge in the former. A police station, block office, residential girls' school and community health centre have been approved in unelectrified Gudri block, but Maoist presence means nothing has comee up. "My people have done their bit. I donated five acres for the block office, others gave land for the rest. It's a two-day ordeal to go to the Sonua block, which still functions as our block office," said Paulus Barjo, Gudri's Munda.

Four of the six panchayat mukhiyas in Gudri now live away from their homes after the Maoists murdered Bimal Lomga, mukhiya of Tomdela in 2011 for being a Congress supporter. "We are like frogs in a well. We usually vote for the Congress but considered considered boycotting elections this time. Then we decided otherwise - it would have made the politicians avoid us more," said Niral Barjo.

More than the Lok Sabha, the Congress will look to the SDP model to give them victories in the assembly election, scheduled to be held either in late 2014 or early 2015. However, the proof of Saranda goes beyond mere winning.