The JMM-Congress-RJD combine’s chief ministerial candidate Hemant Soren yesterday won both the assembly seats he contested in the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly elections.
Soren defeated Jharkhand Welfare Minister Lois Marandi in Dumka seat, securing 80,589 votes against his BJP rival’s 67,571 votes of the total counted 165,033 votes.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief, who was first elected to the state Assembly from Dumka in 2005, had lost the seat in the 2014 assembly poll.
Soren also retained the Barhait assembly seat, defeating BJP candidate Simon Malto by over 25,000 votes. Soren got 73,534 votes and Malto got 47,939 votes.
Soren first came to limelight in 2004 when his father and then Coal Minister Shibu Soren was facing an arrest warrant in a three-decade-old case. The elder Soren had to resign as minister but Hemant Soren fought the legal battle and ensured acquittal of his father.
Becoming Deputy Chief Minister in the Arjun Munda-led BJP government in 2010, he pulled it down in January 2013. He himself became Chief Minister on July 2013 and held power of the state till his party’s defeat in the 2014 Assembly elections.
Scores of Hemant Soren’s supporters had gathered outside his Ranchi house, distributing sweets to celebrate the Jharkhand election results. The opposition alliance that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Hemant Soren had cobbled appeared to be within striking distance of power. Hemant Soren didn’t want to jump the gun and waited for the lead to stabilise.
A pre-election alliance of the regional Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Indian National Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal won 47 seats and the BJP 25, according to the Election Commission.
Hemant Soren
