Putting an end to the suspense over Ranchi lok Sabha constituency, BJP candidate Ram Tahal Chaudhary regained the seat with a record margin of over 1.99 lakh votes. Asserting Modi wave being one of the prime factors for his victory Chaudhary also gave credit to the ground works done by him regularly in his constituency. Congress candidate and sitting MP Subodh Kant Sahay was pushed to the second position.
“The result is not surprising for me as we were quite sure that we will be winning this time with a huge margin. Rather, the margin of votes has disappointed me as I expected a margin of over 2 lakh votes,” said Chaudhary.
AJSU workers are now tacitly admitting that the decision of party chief Sudesh Kumar Mahto contesting from Ranchi seat itself was a wrong decision taken in a haste.
“It was a mistake to contest on this seat, it will also have a negative effect on the Assembly elections” said a leader of AJSU party requesting anonymity.
BJP leaders also were of the view that the dirty game played by Sahay, which also came in the media of fielding Sudesh Mahto to damage the vote bank of Chaudhary boomeranged.
“People have taught a lesson to the Congress after the understanding between Sahay and Mahto was exposed in the media,” said a BJP leader. The votes which were to go in favour of AJSU and Congress, also were voted to the BJP due to the sheer annoyance created among the people after an announcement was made by the AJSU party to field Mahto from Ranchi,” he added.
“These are the factors which led to the convergence of votes of the masses towards BJP as people of all castes, creed, class and religion voted for us leading to such an encouraging results for us,” said the leader.
Ram Tahal Chaudhary got a total of 448517 votes against Subodh Kant Sahay getting 249399 votes. Sudesh Mahto however, remained on the third position with 142547 votes, putting Jharkhand Vikas candidate Amitabh Chaudhary with 67705 votes. Trinamool Congress candidate Bandhu Tirkey on the other hand remained on fifth position with a vote count of 46115.
Remarkably, as many as 6900 people in Ranchi opted for NOTA, which is much more than the votes received 20 independents in the fray.
Chaudhary, winning the seat by a margin of 199118 votes, maintained the lead throughout the counting in all rounds consecutively, registering a lead of 18,874 votes in the first round which continued till the end. Sahay on the other hand, could not even follow the lead made by Chaudhary in the first round throughout the counting in all the seventeen rounds.
Chaudhary was seen
taking stock of the counting results along with his
supporters while candidates of other parties were remarkably missing on the spot except a few counting agents of AJSU party.