BJP-AJSU Party alliance wins 12 of 14 seats in Jharkhand

Ranchi: The BJP-AJSU Party alliance swept the polls in Jharkhand, winning 12 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats while the Congress and the JMM bagged one each.
Riding a Modi wave for the second successive general elections, the saffron party won 11 seats and its ally emerged the winner in one, results made available by the Election Commission said.

The BJP and the AJSU Party fought the elections in alliance for the first time.

The BJP had won 12 seats on its own in 2014.

The JMM, which contested four seats, won only Rajmahal (ST) seat, while its Mahagathbandhan ally the Congress, which was in the fray in seven, wrested Singhbhum (ST) constituency from the BJP.

Two former chief ministers, Shibu Soren and Babulal Marandi, bit the dust, with the JMM president losing the Dumka (ST) seat to BJPs Sunil Soren by 47,590 votes and Marandi facing defeat at the hands of BJPs Annapurna Devi by a margin of 4,55,600 votes from Koderma.

Shibu Soren had won Dumka seat eight times.

However, another former chief minister and BJP candidate Arjun Munda won the Khunti (ST) seat, narrowly beating his nearest Congress rival Kalicharan Munda by 1445 votes.

Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and BJP candidate Jayant Sinha won by a huge margin of 4,78,209 votes to retain the Hazaribagh seat, defeating Gopal Prasad Sahu of the Congress.

Union Minister of state for Tribal Affairs and BJP candidate Sudarshan Bhagat defeated his Congress rival Sukhdeo Bhagat by 10,363 votes to retain the Lohardaga (ST) seat.

The AJSU Party won the lone Giridih seat with its candidate and Jharkhand Water Resources Minister Chandraprakash Choudhary beating JMMs Jagarnath Mahato by 2,48,347 votes.

In Ranchi, BJPs Sanjay Seth defeated former union minister and Congress candidate Subodh Kant Sahay by 2,83,026 votes.

Sitting BJP MP Nishikant Dubey defeated Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) candidate Pradip Yadav by 1,84,227 votes from Godda.

Sitting BJP MP Bidyut Baran Mahato retained the Jamshedpur seat, defeating JMMs Champai Soren by a big margin of 3,02,090 votes.

BJPs sitting MP and former Jharkhand police chief Vishnu Dayal Ram retained the Palamau (SC) seat, defeating his nearest RJD rival Ghuran Ram by 4,75,284 votes.

Sitting BJP MP Sunil Kumar Singh also trounced Congress candidate Manoj Kumar Yadav by a margin of 3,77,871 votes to retain Chatra seat.

Kirti Azad of the Congress lost the Dhanbad seat to BJPs sitting MP Pashupati Nath Singh by 4,86,194 votes.

Azad was a BJP MP from Darbhanga in neighbouring Bihar in 2014 before joining the Congress and getting ticket from Dhanbad.

JMMs sitting MP Vijay Kumar Hansda defeated BJPs Hemlal Murmu by 99,195 votes to retain the Rajmahal (ST) seat.

Gita Koda, Congress nominee and wife of former chief minister Madhu Koda, defeated sitting BJP candidate Laxman Gilua by 72,155 votes from Singhbhum (ST) seat.