Unexpected debacle of several political heavyweights during the Assembly elections in Jharkhand has paved way for a number of dark horses in the State, who had the least chances of winning before the election results were announced.
JMM candidates Amit Mahto from Silli and Krishna Gagrai from Kharsawan remained the forerunners while Chief Minister Hemant Soren was defeated by the BJP candidate louis Marandi in Dumka. Amit managed to beat former Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto in Silli by a margin of 29740 votes while Gagrai defeated former Chief Minister Arjun Munda by 11982 votes. Gagrai managed to get 71923 votes against 59941 votes of Munda.
Amit, expressing his feeling after the announcement of results, gave credit to the people of Silli as well as his mother for the victory. “I am not fully satisfied with my victory as I have lot to do in the constituency which is facing a lot of challenges. I consider it as a platform to take on the challenges ahead for the next five years,” said jubilant Amit. Referring to the switch over to the parties for securing his ticket, Amit said, “All decisions were taken with the consent of my supporters in the public interest.”
Munda, on the other hand, admitting his defeat, expressed his gratitude to those who voted for him and said that victory and defeat was a part of political life but he will continue serving to the people. Munda said, “I am grateful to the people of Kharsawan who elected me for four times consecutively.” Similarly, CPI (Ml) leader Binod Singh also lost Bagodar Assembly seat to Nagendra Mahto of BJP by a small margin of 4300 votes. Singh was supposed to be a strong candidate from Bagodar which was earlier represented by his father Mahendra Singh. Bagodar has remained a traditional support base of the CPI (Ml) with little presence of other political parties across the constituency.
“I lost by 4300 votes but I am still grateful to those 70500 people who voted for me,” said Singh. In yet another shocking result, BJP candidate Gangotri Kujur defeated TMC leader and three times MlA from Mandar Bandhu Tirkey. Barring Industry minister Champai Soren, Drinking Water and Sanitation minister Jaiprakash Bhai Patel and Chief Minister Hemant Soren himself, almost all cabinet ministers lost their respective seats, who were supposed to be strong contenders on the basis of which they were given tickets by the respective parties.
HRD minister Geetashree Oraon, Rural Works Minister lobin Hembrom, Disaster Management minister Mannan Mallick, Agriculture minister Banna Gupta of Congress, Rural Development minister K N Tripathy, Building Construction minister Haji Hussain Ansari as well as Power Minister Rajendra Singh have lost their seats. Jogeshwar Mahto of BJP defeated Rajendra Singh of Congress party from Bermo Assembly seat while state Water Resources Minister Annapurna Devi of RJD lost to the BJP candidate Neera Yadav from Koderma seat giving a setback to the party. Admitting the defeat Rajendra Singh said that he got the support of the people from all walks of life and did not lost in terms of numbers. “It seems that I did some mistakes in my service this time as it was the same people who elected me for several times,” said Singh.
Geetashree Oraon of Congress party lost to the BJP candidate Dinesh Oraon in Sisai while Jharkhand Assembly Speaker and JMM candidate Shashank Shekhar Bhokta also lost to Uday Shankar Singh of BJP in Sarath. Congress candidate Sundari Devi also lost to Ramkumar Pahan of BJP from Khijri. lastly, independent candidate and former minister Gopal Krishna Patar alias Raja Peter, who created history during 2009 Tamar by-elections after defeating the JMM veteran and the then Chief Minister Shibu Soren forcing him to resign from his post, was defeated by AJSU candidate Vikas Singh Munda.