India
Prominent candidates who won and lost the elections in Jharkhand | India News – Times of India
Winners
* Hemant Soren — The Jharkhand CM has increased his margin in Barhait seat compared to the last Assembly elections. He defeated BJP candidate Gamliyel Hembrom this time by a margin of 39,791 votes. In 2019, he had won the constituency with 25,740 votes.
He had to resign as CM in January before he was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case. He was granted bail by the Supreme Court in June and returned as the state’s chief minister in July, replacing Champai Soren.
* Kalpana Soren — The chief minister’s wife won the Gandey seat by a margin of 17,142 votes, defeating Muniya Devi of BJP. She won the seat for the first time in a bypoll on June 4 after it fell vacant following the resignation of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmad.
She is credited with reviving the JMM when her husband was in prison.
* Champai Soren — The former CM, who took over the state government after Hemant Soren’s arrest, won the Seraikela seat on a BJP ticket with 20,447 votes. It is the only seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes that the BJP won in these Assembly elections.
He had to leave the CM’s post after Hemant Soren was released on bail in June and eventually joined the BJP, expressing his dissatisfaction 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 during their public meetings had targeted Alamgir Alam, who was taken into custody by the ED on May 15, and urged people to “throw out corrupt forces like him”.
* Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM) — It’s a new force in the state’s political arena. It won one seat but made its presence felt in several constituencies. Its founder Jairam Mahato, a Kurmi leader, won the Dumri seat with 10,945 votes.
The campaign focused on local languages and culture, and on youth unemployment.
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 ten seats and managed to win only one, that too by a razor-thin margin of 231 votes.
Nirmal Mahto of AJSU Party won the Mandu seat, defeating Jai Prakash Bhai Patel of the Congress.
* Amar Bauri — The Leader of the Opposition came third in the Chandankiyari seat of Bokaro district. JMM’s Umakant Rajak won the constituency by a margin of 33,733 votes, defeating JLKM’s Arjun Rajwar.
In the 2019 parliamentary elections, Bauri defeated Rajak, who contested the seat on an AJSU party ticket. Rajak switched to JMM ahead of these elections after the Chandankiyari seat went to the BJP under the seat-sharing arrangement within the NDA.
* Banna Gupta — The Congress leader, who was health minister in the outgoing government, lost by 7,863 votes to veteran politician Saryu Roy in the Jamshedpur West seat. Roy fought this election on a JD(U) ticket.
* Biranchi Narayan – The BJP chief in the last assembly lost to Congress candidate Shwettaa Singh on the Bokaro seat by a margin of 7,207 votes. He was a two-term MLA and campaigned on development issues in these elections.
* Mithilesh Thakur — The senior JMM leader who held several portfolios in the outgoing government, including Drinking Water & Sanitation and Arts & Culture, lost to BJP’s Satyendra Nath Tiwari by 16,753 votes in the Garhwa seat.
