Jharkhand bypoll: Blow to JMM-Cong govt, loses first bypoll under it to BJP ally

The bypoll held on February 27 recorded a voter turnout of over 67.96%, with 14 of the 18 candidates in the race Independents.

Choudhary got 50.67% of the votes, while the Congress’s Bajrang Mahato, which had the support of the JMM and RJD, got 41.05 % votes.

This is the JMM-led alliance’s first defeat in a bypoll since coming to power. It had won all the four bypolls held since.

The Ramgarh bypoll was necessitated after the disqualification of Congress MLA Mamta Devi, following her conviction and five months’ imprisonment in a 2016 case.

The Congress had fielded Mamta’s husband Bajrang Mahto, and was backing on “sympathy vote” for her.

AJSUP candidate Choudhary is the wife of the party’s Giridih MP, Chandra Prakash Choudhary. The latter had been winning the Ramgarh Assembly constituency, till he moved on as an MP and the seat went to the Congress’s Mamta Devi. Congress sources attributed Choudhary’s win Thursday to her husband’s hold on the seat.

The win will give a fresh impetus to the BJP’s campaign against the Hemant Soren government, which is under pressure over illegal mining to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore in Sahibganj district. Soren himself is under cloud over a mining lease owned by him.

In the 82-member Jharkhand Assembly, including one nominated MLA, the JMM-led alliance now has 48 MLAs (JMM 30, Congress 17 and RJD 1), and the BJP grouping 29 (BJP 26 and AJSU 3).