Bypolls blow to Sudesh, BJP in Jharkhand

In a major shot in the arm for the Opposition, the JMM party under the leadership of Hemant Soren grabbed both the seats that went to the polls, on Thursday. Party candidates Seema Mahto and Babita Devi defeated their nearest rivals in the form of AJSU in Silli and Gomia ,respectively.

Seema Mahto, wife of disqualified legislator Amit Mahto, maintained lead over old timer in State politics and chief of the AJSU party Sudesh Mahto from the very first round. Her emphatic performance can be gauged with the outcome that she never, barring the seventh round, conceded her lead to the AJSU throughout the entire 14 rounds of counting.

Starting with humble lead of 2112 votes in the first round, the JMM candidate consolidated her lead which grew decisively from 11th round onwards with 7439 votes.

The lead went up to 9095 votes and 11222 votes in 12th and 13th rounds finally sealing the seat with the margins of 13,510 votes.

The victory holds significance in the State politics since three-time MLA from Silli and former deputy chief minister of Jharkhand Sudesh Mahto had to eat a humble pie and concede defeat at his ‘home turf’ for the second time in a trot. The loss is also being dubbed as ‘end of the road’ for the student leader and his sudden fall from grace, especially when the ruling dispensation and the BJP backed him as an NDA candidate.  Some reason to smile for the BJP came at the start in Gomia when its candidate Madhav Lal Singh took the first lead with 1541 votes and after trailing to the JMM’s Babita Devi, another better half into the fray in the form of unseated MLA Yogendra Prasad, for the next two rounds returned on track. He managed to remain nose ahead till the 9th round before losing the sheen.

The BJP candidate’s lead dipped from over 8,000 votes to 1051 votes in the 9th round before losing it for ever till the counting came to end at the 18th round. He could not even maintain the second spot and faired distant third after ‘coalition partner’ AJSU. Final tally read the JMM with 60,551 votes followed by 59,207 of AJSU’s Lambodar Mahto and 42037 of the BJP nominee.

The defeat was baffling for the ruling coalition since both the partners in the form of BJP and AJSU despite enjoying the fruits together could not find a common ground and fought separately. AJSU had fielded Lambodar Mahto while snubbing the senior partner BJP and rejected its call of ‘seat sharing formula’ sharing one seat each in the bypoll.

Nevertheless the BJP displaying its commitment to the coalition dharma refrained from giving its own candidate in Silli although the face-sever ‘unity’ could not manage to win the seat for the alliance in Silli.