Keep the tribals happy: Forest-dwellers hold the key in Jharkhand elections
Tribals’
dissatisfaction with the slow implementation of the Forest Rights Act
(FRA), which offers formal recognition of forest-dwellers’ land
rights, could be a deciding factor in more than 62 of the 81 Assembly
constituencies in the Jharkhand
state elections,
an independent research group said.
The
analysis is based on the fact that the number of SC/ST voters
eligible for land rights under the FRA was more than the margin of
victory in the last election in 58 of the 62 seats considered
FRA-sensitive. Nearly 70% of the population in constituencies spread
across Jharkhand —Chakradharpur, Gumla, Latehar and Simdega, for
example — belong to the SC/ST category.
Analysing
the results of the 2014 Assembly elections in these 62
constituencies, researchers concluded that any political party that
promised effective implementation of the FRA and other laws
protecting land rights of tribals could defeat the incumbent
Bharatiya Janata Party.
The
FRA, which came into effect in 2006, is critical to the livelihoods
of at least 3.8 million SC/ST voters in Jharkhand, 52% of 7.3 million
voters, according to the 2014 voting statistics. Read
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