In Jharkhand, BJP wins 8 but Munda loses as Opp rides Soren factor in tribal seats

The five reserved seats were bagged by the INDIA bloc – which includes the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and its allies like the Congress, RJD and CPI(ML)L – of which the Congress won 2 and JMM won 5.

Coming to vote share, the BJP and its ally AJSU got 47.22 per cent, down from 56 per cent in 2019. Meanwhile, the Congress’ vote share is 19.9 per cent and JMM got 14.60 per cent.

The biggest setback for the BJP remained the loss of senior party leader and Union minister Arjun Munda who lost by a margin of 1.49 lakh votes against the Congress’s Kalicharan Munda in Khunti constituency. Kalicharan is the brother of the BJP’s Khunti MLA Neelkanth Singh Munda.

Barring the Dumka seat, the INDIA bloc won by a margin of more than a lakh votes in Khunti, Lohardaga, Singhbhum and Rajmahal.

From Dumka seat, BJP’s Sita Soren, who is Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law, lost to JMM’s Nalin Soren by a close margin of 22,527 votes. BJP had replaced the incumbent MP Sunil Soren in Dumka.

Meanwhile, BJP’s Godda MP Nishikant Dubey, who had claimed that his seat would see the highest winning margin, won with the lowest margin among the BJP seats.

He won by over 1.02 lakh votes against the Congress’s Pradeep Yadav, whose name was re-announced after withdrawing the name of Deepika Pandey Singh as the candidate.

Dubey’s campaign projected his role in ensuring an airport, an AIIMS facility and 13 long-distance trains for his constituency.

BJP’s ally AJSU won from Giridih Lok Sabha seat where it was a three cornered contest. AJSU’s Chandra Prakash Mahato won with a margin of more than 80, 000 votes and polled 4.51 lakh votes.

JMM’s Mathura Prasad Mahato polled 3.70 lakh votes. Interestingly, newcomer Jairam Mahato, an activist who gained his reputation by demanding that the 1932 year cut off-domicile policy, got 3.47 lakh votes.

Congress turncoat Geeta Koda, wife of former CM Madhu Koda, who had won from Singhbhum in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections despite the “Modi wave”, lost by a margin of more than 1.68 lakh votes against the JMM’s Jobha Manjhi. Geeta Koda had defected to the BJP just ahead of the polls.

In the Lohardaga seat, Congress candidate Sukhdev Bhagat won by 1.39 lakh votes against the BJP’s Samir Oraon. Former Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee president, Bhagat, who had switched to the BJP after a debacle in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, later returned to the Congress. Rebel JMM leader Chamra Linda, who fought as an Independent from Lohardaga, failed to make a dent in the INDIA alliance candidate’s vote bank as was speculated.
In Rajmahal, the JMM’s two-time MP Vijay Hansdak won by margin of more than 1.78 lakh votes.