The alliance led by Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has reached the halfway mark in Jharkhand, trends at 2.55 pm showed. Soren, who had contested from two seats, is leading from Barhait but is neck and neck from Dumka. It is currently a see saw between BJP’s Lois Marandi and Soren in Dumka. At last count, Hemant Soren is ahead by about 900 votes.
The BJP, meanwhile, is ahead on 29 seats.
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“The government that is going to be formed will be a majority and a strong government. Our alliance is capable of forming the government alone. But still, those who are winning against the government... it is their moral responsibility and our moral responsibility as well that we take them together,” Congress leader Rajesh Thakur said while speaking to reporters.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das, who is eyeing second term, is trailing his cabinet colleague Saryu Roy from Jamshedpur-East seat after the fourth round of counting. Saryu Roy has built on his initial lead and at 44.6 per cent vote share, is ahead by about 5,900 votes.
Das has won from Jamshedpur-East for 5 times, and looked set to emerge victorious this time too, but Roy jumped in the fray as an Independent candidate after being denied ticket from his sitting seat Jamshedpur-West in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.
{{/usCountry}}Das has won from Jamshedpur-East for 5 times, and looked set to emerge victorious this time too, but Roy jumped in the fray as an Independent candidate after being denied ticket from his sitting seat Jamshedpur-West in East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand.
{{/usCountry}}Sensing victory, Congress workers are celebrating at party headquarters in New Delhi, but Raghubar Das is not giving up. “It will be wrong to arrive at any conclusion,” he said, insisting that the BJP will win elections to the 81-member state assembly before the day is out.
“A government will only be formed under the BJP’s leadership,” Das said, a suggestion the party could reach out to friendly parties and ex-allies to cross the majority mark of 41.
Tejashwi Yadav, responding to earlier reports of the alliance’s leads on 42 seats, had already gone ahead declare that the alliance had “swept” the elections and reiterated that Soren, the JMM working president, would be the next Jharkhand chief minister.
Polling on 81 Assembly seats in Jharkhand was held in five phases from November 30 to December 20.
The tenure of the current Assembly ends on January 5, 2020. This is the fourth Assembly election in Jharkhand since the state was carved out of Bihar in 2000.