Ranchi: While BJP has retained prominent urban constituencies in this election, Congress and RJD have improved the INDIA bloc's tally across smaller urban settlements.
Urban constituencies like Ranchi, Hatia, Dhanbad and Jharia assembly segments were won by BJP with thumping majority and Congress, too, chipped in by claiming the garrison town of Ramgarh. The grand old party also won the Kanke (SC) seat in Ranchi district, which covers a substantial portion of urban Ranchi.
Congress also stormed Bokaro with its candidate Shweta Singh defeating BJP's two-time MLA Biranchi Narayan, who was also the chief whip of the saffron party in the outgoing state assembly. RJD, on the other hand, sprang a surprise by winning in temple town Deoghar. It also rode heavily on the anti-incumbency of the outgoing BJP candidate, Amit Kumar Mandal, to clinch Godda.
While JMM put up a tough fight in Ranchi five years ago, its candidate Mahua Maji, a Rajya Sabha MP, lost to BJP's C P Singh this time, too.
In Steel City Jamshedpur, Congress put up a stellar fight in Jamshedpur (West) constituency but outgoing health minister Banna Gupta fell behind JD(U)'s Saryu Roy by a little over 7,000 votes. In Jamshedpur (East) Congress suffered a crushing defeat with Ajoy Kumar losing to BJP's political greenhorn Purnima Das Sahu by over 64,000 votes.
Speaking to TOI on condition of anonymity, a senior Congress functionary said, "Kumar set up a parallel framework of the karyakartas and did not take the party workers along. His style of campaigning was more corporate and he relied on his own image more than that of the party in this election which resulted in his debacle."
Former state Congress president Rajesh Thakur said Congress and RJD broke into the urban constituencies this time. "In Ramgarh, Godda, Deoghar, Kanke and Bokaro, we did well. In Daltonganj, we lost by a very thin margin. This shows that the urban electorate aligned with our manifesto and our promises to an extent," he told TOI.