New Delhi: With the announcement of elections to the legislative assembly of Jharkhand on Friday, state’s chief minister Raghubar Das became the first chief minister to complete his full term in office since the formation of the state in the year 2000.
Elections for the 81-member strong house in Jharkhand will be held in five phases beginning from November 30 and the results will be announced on December 23, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said at a press briefing on Friday.
BJP’s Raghubar Das was sworn-in as the CM of Jharkhand on December 28, 2014. Interestingly, apart from being the first Jharkhand CM to complete a full term in office, Das is also the first non-tribal CM of Jharkhand — a state having one of the highest tribal population and where 28 of the 81 assembly seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST).
Jharkhand as a state was formed in November 2000 and was carved from what was previously southern Bihar. Babulal Marandi of the BJP became the first chief minister in the interim assembly and remained in office for over two years till March 2003. He was followed by Arjun Munda, who held the post for nearly two years, till the first election in 2005.
In 2005, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the single largest party with 30 seats, while Shibu Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) got 17 seats. Nine seats were secured by the Congress, whereas the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal (United) bagged seven and six seats, respectively.
After the elections, JMM’s Shibu Soren became the chief minister. Soren, however, had to vacate the office after just 10 days as he failed to prove majority support in the assembly. Following this, BJP’s Arjun Munda became the CM for the second time and remained in office till September 6, 2006.
After this, Madhu Koda, an Independent, was sworn-in as the chief minister. Koda remained in office for nearly two years till he resigned in August, 2008. Between 2008 and 2010, Jharkhand saw Shibu Soren become the CM twice and was twice put under President’s rule in quick succession.
First, after Koda’s resignation, Soren became the CM for four months till January 2009 which was followed by 11 months of President’s rule till the second assembly elections in December 2009. In the 2009 elections, the BJP and the JMM secured 18 seats each with a vote share of 20.18 per cent and 15.2 per cent, respectively. While the Congress posted a tally of 14 seats and 16.16 per cent of valid votes, Babulal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Mocha (JVM) won 11 seats and 8.99 per cent of the votes in its debut.
Soren again became the CM for a short stint of five months and the state was again put under President’s rule for three months between June and September, 2010. Arjun Munda returned for his third stint as the CM of Jharkhand and remained in office till January 2013 (2 years and 4 months) and the state was again put under President’s rule for over five months — third time in less the five years. President’s rule was lifted in July 2013 and former CM Shibu Soren’s son Hemant Soren became the CM and ruled the state till the 2014 elections.
In 2014, the BJP emerged as the single largest party with 37 seats. While the JMM secured 19 seats, former chief minister Babulal Marandi’s JVM won eight seats. The Congress on the other hand bagged six seats.