Sharp gain of 10 Assembly seats during the fourth round of polls in the coal belt this time, led BJP towards a clear majority during the Assembly elections in Jharkhand.
Earlier, the BJP had managed to get only one seat in this region during 2009 Assembly elections. Significant gain of seats in Santhal and Palamu also helped BJP strengthening its position in the state. “More or less, we remained advantageous in all the regions across the state but fourth phase of polls proved to be the major factor for getting such a huge and historical mandate in the state,” said BJP spokesperson Pradeep Sinha. BJP managed to win 11 out of the total of 15 seats against the earlier tally of one seat, he added. According to Sinha, people of coal belt have outrightly rejected their representatives elected by them earlier as no development work was carried out by them in the last five years. The region was primarily dominated by JVM having a major share of five seats, he said.
Three state ministers Haji Hussain Ansari, Suresh Paswan and Mannan Mallik from Madhupur, Deoghar and Dhanbad respectively lost this time in this region. All the three seats were won by BJP which managed to retain all the seats lost during 2009 Assembly elections. Similarly, BJP managed to make a dent into Santhal Pargana this time, supposed to be the stronghold of JMM which has also been a workplace of the party chief Shibu Soren. Despite the Chief Minister Hemant Soren, putting all efforts for keeping out BJP from the region, it managed to secure Rajmahal, Borio, Dumka, Godda as well as Mahgama. Remarkably, CM Soren lost Dumka seat by the BJP candidate louis Marandi.
The NDA alliance, out of 13 seats during the first phase of polls in Palamu managed to double its tally from three to seven after being clubbed together with Gumla. BJP retained Sisai Assembly seat, which was lost to the Congress candidate Geetashree Oraon in 2009 while it could not retain latehar seat. Kolhan on the other hand, proved to be a major loss for BJP candidate wise, while the tally of numbers was retained as earlier to 8 during the second round of polls in the region. AJSU also managed to retain two seats in the region. Former Chief Minister and leader of opposition Arjun Munda lost his Kharsawan seat to the JMM candidate Dashrath Gagrai. Former Cabinet Secretary JB Tubid also lost to Deepak Birua of JMM from Chaibasa.