With the alliance of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Congress and the RJD obtaining majority in the 81-member assembly, JMM chief Hemant Soren is all set to return as the chief minister of the state. According to latest trends, the JMM has won 26 seats and is leading in another four to become the single largest party—a status which had been with the BJP for the last 19 years of the state's history.
Soren, who had been the face of the opposition alliance, won by a margin of 13,188 votes from the Dumka seat and from the Barhait assembly constituency by a margin of 25,740 votes.
Meanwhile, outgoing Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das took responsibility for the electoral verdict, saying it was his defeat and not of the BJP. The saffron party had won 37 seats in the 2014 assembly polls.
The defeat, which comes in the middle of nation-wide protests against the amended Citizenship Act, is seen as a major setback to the BJP. The results were a "substantive and clear mandate against the divisive and disruptive political actions" of Prime Minister Modi and the BJP, said Congress general secretary in-charge for organization K.C. Venugopal.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi congratulated the party, its coalition partners and workers on the decisive victory of the alliance in Jharkhand, while party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the people want to hear from the government on employment, bread, water, forest, land, farming and trade, but the BJP tried its best to "divide the people to hide its failed politics".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Soren for the victory and extended his best wishes to the alliance while BJP president Amit Shah said his party respects the mandate of voters and also expressed his gratitude to the people of Jharkhand for giving the BJP a chance to govern the state for five years.
Born in 1975, Soren took the political centre stage after his father and three-time chief minister Shibu Soren quit the Manmohan Singh cabinet following his conviction in the Chirrudih massacre case. He later won the Dumka Assembly seat in 2009.
Soren went on to become a Rajya Sabha Member in 2009-2010, before becoming Jharkhand's youngest chief minister in 2013 with the support of the Congress and the RJD.
However, his first stint as chief minister lasted for just about 14 months since July 15, 2013. The BJP seized power in 2014 in the politically unstable state and Raghubar Das took over as the chief minister.
After his party's spectacular performance, Soren said a new chapter begins which will prove to be a milestone. He had promised to protect the land, culture and tradition of tribals in the state, but whether his government will bring the Sarna code is to be seen.
The BJP/NDA political map after the Jharkhand elections | Rahul J. Mohan, Varun Ramesh
The poll results indicate that local and real issues of farm crisis, economy and unemployment have found more resonance at the ground and that bodes well for the opposition in future polls to win back states from the BJP. The Jharkhand poll results also show that the caste equations against BJP are consolidating. A Congress leader told PTI that the BJP has lost the support of tribals by installing a non-tribal chief minister in the tribal dominated state.
