Ranchi, Jan. 12: It was time for some serious stocktaking in the JMM camp with Shibu Soren holding a closed-door meeting today to discuss the party's performance at the recently concluded Assembly elections where it received the worst drubbing in stronghold Santhal Pargana.

The JMM patriarch, in his presidential address at the meeting at his Morabadi residence in Ranchi, heaped praises on party leaders for keeping its seat tally intact, but at the same time, called for urgent introspection about what went wrong with its strategies in seats like Santhal Pargana.

Although the JMM won 19 seats, one up from the 2009 tally of 18, it had set a far higher target. But what caused more heartburn for the party was the performance by BJP, which ended up notching 37 seats against last election's 18.

Reviewing the party's performance in Dumka, where former chief minister Hemant Soren was defeated by BJP's Louise Marandi, JMM leaders today expressed shock that their rival was able to make dent in two of their most-trusted vote banks - Muslims and Christians.

'Our review confirms that the BJP was able to garner around 8,000 Muslim and 6,000 Christian votes. The division of minority votes is a serious worry for us. The migration of around 12,000 tribal voters to Bengal for harvesting cost us dear. Otherwise, it would have been very difficult for the BJP to win. The BJP had done massive barricading against us in Dumka and the strategy worked. Urban voters dismissed us,' a senior JMM leader admitted.

Hemant in a way compensated for Dumka's loss by winning from Barhait, where the BJP had fielded former JMM stalwart Hemlal Murmu.

Leaders attending the meeting also praised Hemant's 14-month tenure of chief ministership. 'If we lost some of our strongholds, we wrested seats from our rivals too. In Ranchi, we won Silli by defeating Ajsu Party chief Sudesh Mahto. Our decision to contest all 81 seats was politically a correct decision. It helped us build a strong party organisation,' Hemant is understood to have told the party workers.

Addressing a news meet later in the evening, JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said they were planning to hold a plenary session of the party tentatively in March.

'The JMM will act as a powerful and constructive opposition to thwart any anti-people decision of the government. The state government has announced a recruitment drive to fill up vacant posts in various departments. We will oppose any such move if it is taken without bringing a proper domicile policy. We will also oppose the amended version of the Centre's Land Acquisition Act,' Bhattacharya said.

Mahua Maji, who was fielded from Ranchi, said the delay in taking a call on breaking the alliance with the Congress was also to be blamed.

'For two months, the party negotiated with the Congress and the RJD for striking an alliance and at the last moment, the deal didn't work out. Hence, we got little time to fight the elections,' Maji said.