Jharkhand result signals RJD revival as party bags 4 of 6 seats it contested

RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav won Godda by a margin of 21,471 votes, defeating BJP’s sitting MLA Amit Kumar Mandal. In 2019, Mandal had defeated Sanjay Prasad by 4,512 votes.

In SC-reserved Deoghar, RJD’s Suresh Paswan defeated BJP’s sitting MLA Narayan Das by 39,721 votes. In Hussainabad, RJD’s Sanjay Kumar Singh Yadav defeated BJP’s Kamlesh Kumar Singh by 34,364 votes.

In Koderma, BJP’s sitting MLA Neera Yadav defeated RJD’s Subhash Prasad Yadav by a margin of 5,815 votes. An Independent candidate, Shalini Gupta, played the spoilsport for RJD; she got 69,537 votes to stay at the third position.

The RJD faced defeat in Chatra constituency where its candidate Rashmi Prakash lost to Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate Janardhan Paswan by 18,401 votes.

Prakash is the daughter-in-law of state minister Satyanand Bhokta, who won the seat in 2019. Chatra is an SC-reserved seat and after his caste was named on the ST list a couple of years ago, Bhokta fielded his daughter-in-law who belongs to the SC community on the RJD ticket.

The BJP gave the Chatra seat to its NDA ally LJP (Ram Vilas) which fielded Janardan Paswan who had lost the election to the constituency on a BJP ticket in 2019. Janardan Paswan joined the LJP last month only.

The Jharkhand election result has given a hope of revival to the RJD, whose performance in the state was constantly declining since the formation of the state. In the first Assembly elections held in 2005, the RJD had contested 51 seats and won seven. In the next elections in 2009, the party contested 56 seats and won only five. In 2014, the party contested on 14 seats and failed to win any seat. In 2019, the RJD contested on seven seats and won only one — Chatra.

RJD’s Jharkhand spokesperson Rakesh Sharma said, “This is the win of the strategy of INDIA bloc and our unity. Our voters stayed consolidated because they had decided — na katenge na batenge.” He said the RJD would have won Chatra seat too but internal sabotage caused the party’s defeat there.

A JMM leader said the RJD improved its tally and the Congress maintained its strength in the Jharkhand Assembly because the tribal voters maintained their trust in Chief Minister Hemant Soren.