Verdict day on Thursday for Jharkhand remained a mirror image of 2014 Assembly elections. While parties forced to rename their candidates in the bypolls, voters at both Panki and Godda constituencies did not change their mind and stuck to the Congress and the BJP. The seats, having fallen vacant due to death of sitting legislators, got refilled by none other than their sons.
At Panki, where the Congress’ nominee Devender Singh, son of sitting MlA Bidesh Singh, reclaimed the seat, the result was no different in Godda. Son of late Raghunandan Mandal of the BJP Amit Mandal repeated his father’s feat.
Amit Mandal defeated his nearest rival of RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav by a margin of whopping 34,551 votes after getting polled 83,987. Nonetheless the BJP got nearly 4,000 votes lesser than what it was polled in the general Assembly elections about one and half years back. Raghunandan Mandal had got 87,158 votes in 2014.
Sanjay Prasad Yadav, who had bagged 52,672 in 2014, could get 49,436 votes this time. JMM that had fielded former Odisha DGP Sanjeev Marik in the bypoll could manage just 18,337 votes and stood on the third position.
Similarly at Panki, Devender Singh with 56, 343 votes won the bye-election with a margin of 3,558 votes, higher than his father's victory margin and his total tally of 41,175 in 2014. Shashi Bhushan Mehta remained second time unlucky on a trot and could manage 52,785 votes against his previous total of 39,180 after being fielded with JMM symbol this time around.
The BJP, which had put its money this time on an ‘outsider’ in the form of lal Suraj, again a son of former Panki MlA, slipped to third position with 36,028 votes. On the previous occasion, BJP’s Amit Kumar Tiwari had managed 29,058 votes. Madhu Singh’s son lal Suraj, the JMM’s nominee in 2014, had got 22,882 popular votes.
When asked about whether the parachuted entry into the party fold ignited dissatisfaction among its cadres and disenchantment among the voters, BJP's outgoing State president and MP Ravindra Rai conceded up to an extent.
“We have not officially received any complaint about any local leader who would have worked against the party’s official candidate but we will definitely look into this aspect. Our immediate assessment says that the Congress candidate got sympathy votes of his father. We had tried to project a candidate under local social equation but probably failed to convince the voters. Party gives ticket looking at all the aspects on the table,” said Rai soon after the results were declared.
On the other hand, the Congress sounded upbeat about Panki but played coalition tune once again for Jharkhand politics. “All the Opposition parties should have come together against the ideologies and policies of the BJP. We were expecting this from Hemant Soren but he paid no heed. But now he should understand the need of the hour,” said Jharkhand Congress president Sukhdeo Bhagat who has consolidated his position by winning two back-to-back bypolls for the party and bettered Congress’ 2014 figures in the Assembly.
However, he showed no sign to accept leadership of the largest Opposition party i.e. JMM under ‘coalition compulsion’ formula when asked about next battle in hands, i.e Rajya Sabha polls for two seats. "Congress has natural claim to a seat which is its sitting seat. Also, in the national politics the party has a greater role to play (than the JMM)," said Bhagat virtually shunning possibility of a coalition against the BJP in the State.
Amid all this, the biggest loser remained the JMM. Regardless of having no reflection on its standing in the House, JMM's losing both the seats would be not less than a dent for the party of 19 legislators.
“Sympathy played a central role on both the seats. Besides, at Godda we had a new face. But it is also clear that all the parties doing Opposition politics should come under the umbrella of the JMM and accept its leadership for the future,” said party’s general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.