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We respect the mandate, says Amit Shah after BJP’s stunning Jharkhand defeat
BJP president and Home Minister Amit Shah thanked people for giving the BJP the opportunity to serve the people of Jharkhand for five years.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah tweeted his first reaction to the stunning defeat of the party in the Jharkhand state elections on Monday evening with a ‘thank you’ note to the people of the state for having given his party the chance to serve the state for five years.
“We respect the mandate of the people of Jharkhand,” Amit Shah said in a tweet on Monday evening. Shah’s message, which came after 90 per cent of the votes had been counted in the state, also thanked party workers for the work they had put in the party’s campaign.
In two tweets, Prime Minister Narendra Modi echoed Amit Shah promising the state that “we will continue serving the state and raising people-centric issues in the times to come”. PM Modi also congratulated Hemant Soren and “the JMM-led alliance for the victory in the Jharkhand polls. Best wishes to them in serving the state”.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das had, just a short while earlier, conceded defeat after holding on to hope all day long that the BJP, which appeared headed to be the single largest party, could reach within point blank range of power.
The tally did change as the day went along but to the BJP’s disadvantage; dropping from a range of 28-30 seats to 21.
At a Press conference later in the day, Raghubar Das said: “This will be my defeat, not the Bharatiya Janata Party’s.”
Five years ago, Raghubar Das - who had by then had five straight wins from Jamshedpur East - was the BJP’s surprise pick as chief minister in a state that had only had chief ministers from the tribal community. But the BJP’s presumptive chief minister for the state elections, from most available accounts, was not able to counter the anti-incumbency factor for a variety of reasons.
