Staging a remarkable comeback Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
The majority mark in the state assembly is 41 seats.
The BJP was confident that it could turn the tide in its favour through an aggressive campaign that targeted CM Soren’s leadership, and raised issues like ‘infiltration’ from Bangladesh and the government’s alleged ‘corruption’.
Though the BJP failed to replicate the Maharashtra triumph, where it secured a landslide, its vote share in the eastern state was more than the JMM.
The BJP contested 68 seats and registered a 33.18 per cent vote share as compared to JMM’s 23.44 per cent.
The JMM contested 43 seats and won 34, the highest-ever seats won by the party.
According to PTI, The Congress got 16 seats, the Rashtriya Janata Dal four and the Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist secured two seats in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).
The JMM’s campaign also focused on promises of welfare schemes and accused the BJP-led Centre of using the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as tools against rival parties.
Both Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana managed to create a wave of sympathy among the tribal electorate, and despite the anti-incumbency sentiment, the BJP failed to capitalise on it, according to poll analysts.
