Saffron wave sweeps Jharkhand as BJP-led NDA wins 12 out of 14 seats

RANCHI: Saffron wave swept across Jharkhand once again with the BJP-led NDA winning 12 out of 14 seats in the state. Although Jharkhand has been a stronghold of BJP for over three decades, it was expected that this time the saffron party would face stiff competition from the grand alliance, which included Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (Prajatantrik) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) but Prime Minister Narendra Modi proved too strong for the grand alliance and the final result is a testimony to this fact.

The BJP won 11 seats and its ally the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) managed to bag one seat in the mineral-rich state, which was carved out from Bihar in 2000. Both the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won one seat each with the Congress winning in Singhbhum and JMM in Rajmahal.

Union Minister Jayant Sinha defeated his rival Congress candidate Gopal Sahu by a huge margin of 4,79,548 votes. JMM president Shibu Soren faced defeat at the hands of his disciple Sunil Soren by over 47,590 votes. In Kodarma, BJP's Annapurna Devi defeated Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM-P) President and former Chief Minister Babulala Marandi by 4,55,600. Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda defeated Congress' Kalicharan Munda in Khunti by a margin of over 1,445 votes. In Ranchi, BJP's Sanjay Seth beat Subodhkant Sahay of Congress by 2,83,026 votes. In Lohardaga, Union Minister Sudarsan Bhagat of the BJP defeated Congress' Sukhdeo Bhagat. The BJP also won Palamau, Chatra, Godda and Dhanbad seats quite comfortably. BJP's ally AJSU Party's Chandra Prakash Choudhary won from Giridih after defeating Jharkhand Mukti Morcha's Jagarnath Mahto by a margin of 2,48,347 votes.

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The BJP managed to register a landslide victory in Jharkhand largely due to its ability to keep its enemies, both within and outside the party under control. The saffron party did well to assuage the anger of voters on contentious issues like joblessness and land rights but the party deserves special credit for quelling down rebellions from its own party members. The BJP managed to ward off all these issues by using the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Here is the list of the successful candidates from Jharkhand in the Lok Sabha election 2019:

The BJP knew well in advance that anti-incumbency of Chief Minister Raghubar Das may jettison its chances in Lok Sabha election and they acted well in time and decided to focus their campaign on Modi’s performance at the Centre. The BJP leaders kept on talking about the muscular foreign policy adopted by PM Modi against Pakistan in dealing with terrorism and the development work carried out by the Centre in since 2014.