This story is from May 24, 2019

Poll springs up mixed bag of surprises for stalwarts

Greenhorns, turncoats and unassuming aspirants gave political giants of Jharkhand a run for their money during Thursday's counting. Much like the shock defeat of eight-time MP and JMM chief Shibu Soren at the hands of his resilient 'shishya' Sunil Soren in Dumka, JVM-P's Babulal Marandi was also handed his worst electoral defeat by BJP's Annapurna Devi, a RJD turncoat who contested the Lok Sabha election for the first time
Poll springs up mixed bag of surprises for stalwarts
Jayant Sinha and Sanjay Seth
RANCHI: Greenhorns, turncoats and unassuming aspirants gave political giants of Jharkhand a run for their money during Thursday's counting. Much like the shock defeat of eight-time MP and JMM chief Shibu Soren at the hands of his resilient 'shishya' Sunil Soren in Dumka, JVM-P's Babulal Marandi was also handed his worst electoral defeat by BJP's Annapurna Devi, a RJD turncoat who contested the Lok Sabha election for the first time.
Annapurna defeated the five-time MP and the first chief minister of Jharkhand by over 4.54 lakh votes.
Subodh Kant Sahay, the veteran Congress politician who served as Union home minister during the Punjab unrest of 1980s and the tourism minister in UPA-I cabinet, was pitted as favourite for Ranchi seat. But the 67-year-old was defeated by Sanjay Seth, a BJP karyakarta of 40 years and a debutant in electoral politics, by over 2.89 lakh votes.
Seth, who was chairman of the state Khadi and Village Industries Board, also humbled five-time Ranchi MP and BJP rebel Ram Tahal Choudhary along the way. Choudhary, irked over being dropped by BJP as the candidate, contested independently.
Sahay appeared flabbergasted when speaking to TOI in the evening. "It is shocking. I do not know what happened. It is okay if one loses by 40,000 to 50,000 votes. But such a huge margin is unfathomable," he said. Seth said his victory was because of the people's confidence in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I was confident right from the start. It is Modi Ji who won. I am just a karyakarta," he said.
Meanwhile, BJP's state chief Laxman Gilua went down to Congress's Geeta Koda. Geeta is the wife of former CM Madhu Koda. She defeated Gilua by 72,155 votes. "We are yet to analyse what went wrong," one of Gilua's aides said.
Jayant Sinha retained Hazaribag seat with a resounding victory over Congress's Gopal Sahu by over 4.5 lakh votes. "It is Modi tsunami and the blessings of the people of Hazaribag which helped me win," he told reporters as counting entered its final leg. Sinha's cabinet colleague Sudarshan Bhagat retained Lohardaga seat in a closely-fought contest with Congress party's Sukhdeo Bhagat by a little over 9,000 votes.
In Dhanbad, Congress candidate Kirti Azad was no match for BJP's Pashupati Nath Singh as the former cricketer-turned-politician lost by over four lakh votes. Azad was not available for his comments.
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