RANCHI: Following are the results of the significant candidates in the Jharkhand assembly elections:
Winners
* Hemant Soren — The Jharkhand CM increased his margin in the Barhait seat as compared to the last assembly elections. He defeated BJP candidate Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes this time. In 2019, he had won the constituency by 25,740 votes.
He had to resign as the CM in January before being arrested by the ED in a money laundering case. He was released on bail by the high court in June, and in July, he returned as the chief minister of the state, replacing Champai Soren.
* Kalpana Soren — The chief minister’s wife won the Gandey seat by a margin of 17,142 votes, defeating BJP’s Muniya Devi. She first won the seat in a bypoll on June 4 after it fell vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.
She is credited with revitalising the JMM when her husband was in jail.
* Champai Soren — The former CM, who took over the reign of the state after Hemant Soren’s arrest, won the Seraikela seat on a BJP ticket by 20,447 votes. It is the only seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes that the BJP won in this assembly election.
He had to quit the CM’s post after Hemant Soren was released from jail on bail in June, and eventually, he joined the BJP, expressing discontent with the JMM.
* Nisat Alam — The wife of former Jharkhand minister Alamgir Alam, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case, won the Pakur seat by the highest margin of 86,029 votes.
Several central leaders had targeted Alamgir Alam, taken into custody by the ED on May 15, during their public rallies, urging people to “throw out corrupt forces like him”.
* Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) — A new force in the political arena of the state, it bagged one seat but made its presence felt in several constituencies. Its founder Jairam Mahato, a Kurmi leader, won the Dumri seat by 10,945 votes.
Its campaign focussed on local languages and culture, and unemployment among the youth.
Losers
* Sudesh Mahto — The AJSU Party supremo lost the Silli seat to JMM’s Amit Kumar by a margin of 23,867 votes. His party contested 10 seats and managed to win only one, that too by a wafer-thin margin of 231 votes.
AJSU Party’s Nirmal Mahto bagged the Mandu seat, defeating Jai Prakash Bhai Patel of the Congress.
* Amar Bauri — The leader of the opposition came at the third spot in the Chandankiyari seat in Bokaro district. JMM’s Umakant Rajak won the constituency by a margin of 33,733 votes, defeating Arjun Rajwar of the JLKM.
In the 2019 assembly polls, Bauri defeated Rajak, who contested the seat on an AJSU Party ticket. Rajak switched to JMM ahead of this election after the Chandankiyari seat went to the BJP as per the seat-sharing arrangement within the NDA.
* Banna Gupta — The Congress leader who was the health minister in the outgoing government lost to veteran politician Saryu Roy in the Jamshedpur West seat by 7,863 votes. Roy fought this election on a JD(U) ticket.
* Biranchi Narayan — The BJP chief whip in the last assembly lost to Congress candidate Shwettaa Singh in the Bokaro seat by a margin of 7,207 votes. He was a two-term MLA and campaigned in this election on the plank of development.
* Mithilesh Thakur — The senior JMM leader who held several portfolios in the outgoing government, including Drinking Water & Sanitation and Art & Culture, lost to BJP’s Satyendra Nath Tiwari by 16,753 votes in the Garhwa seat.
