Ranchi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's powerful campaign worked well for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is all set to form the government in Jharkhand though technically it will still be a minority government. Despite the well-oiled campaign which appealed to the voters to given majority to the party to ensure the first single party majority government in the state, the BJP fell just short of halfway mark of 42-seats and will need the support of its pre-poll allies as well as some post-poll partners.
BJP and its ally All Jharkhand Students Union Party (AJSU) have won 41 seats with their third partner Lok Janshakti Party failing to open its account. Even as the lotus bloomed across the state, there was some gloom in the party too as its senior leader and three-time chief minister Arjun Munda suffered an unexpected loss at Kharsawan. AJSU Party chief Sudesh Mahto, too, lost from Silli.
While BJP National Vice-president Raghubar Das won Jamshedpur East seat with a huge margin of 70,000 votes, Munda who had won the Kharsawan seat four times earlier lost to JMM's Dashrath Gagrai by a huge margin of . "Win and loss are normal process in politics. I am grateful to the voters of Kharsawan, who gave me four times opportunity to serve them," Munda said.
Das is now the frontrunner to become the chief minister and it will be the first time that a non-tribal occupies the post.
BJP President Amit Shah while congratulating his party members for the success said, "We had promised that a majority government can only help in the development of Jharkhand. We assure that we will work towards the progress of the state."
"In Jharkhand BJP had 18 seats and now we have reached 41 seats. The vote share has increased from 24 per cent to 31 per cent," he added.
Despite runninga highly unpopular government, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) managed to come up with a credible performance. But the Congress and its allies have been completely marginalised along with Babulal Marandi's Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) who have been banished to the opposition benches for the next five years. Marandi, Jharkhand's first chief minister, lost from both Dhanwar and Giridih.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren from JMM won Barhait seat by 24087 votes. The Congress was leading in seven seats against 14 it had won in the last elections. Its ally RJD is ahead in two seats down from five in 2009.
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