E-Paper
Rebels, demography, vote splitters, rejected ballots sink BJP in six out of eight ULBs in Kolhan
With the lone exception of Adityapur Municipal Corporation AMC where BJP-backed candidate Sanjay Sardar became the first tribal mayor after 13 years, the party lost Mango Municipal Corporation mayor post to Congress-backed Sudha Gupta, Jugsalai Nagar Parishad (JNP) chairperson post to the Jharkhand State Minority Commission (JSMC) chairperson Hedyatullah Khan’s wife Nausheen Khan who fought the polls in defiance of the JMM-supported candidate Dolly Mallick and Chakulia Nagar Panchayat (CNP) to JMM-backed Sombari Soren.
Rebels, vote splitters, demographic polarisation and rejected ballots sank the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the elections of six out of eight main urban local bodies (ULBs) in the three districts under the Kolhan Division of Jharkhand in the Jharkhand Municipal Elections-2026, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
With the lone exception of Adityapur Municipal Corporation AMC where BJP-backed candidate Sanjay Sardar became the first tribal mayor after 13 years, the party lost Mango Municipal Corporation mayor post to Congress-backed Sudha Gupta, Jugsalai Nagar Parishad (JNP) chairperson post to the Jharkhand State Minority Commission (JSMC) chairperson Hedyatullah Khan’s wife Nausheen Khan who fought the polls in defiance of the JMM-supported candidate Dolly Mallick and Chakulia Nagar Panchayat (CNP) to JMM-backed Sombari Soren.
The JMM-backed candidates Nitin Prakash, Sunny Oraon and Manoj Choudhary also wrested the Chaibasa Nagar Parishad (CNP), Chakradharpur Nagar Parishad (CKNP) and the Seraikela Nagar Parishad (SNP) chairperson posts by defeating their nearest BJP-backed rivals Ramesh Khirwal, Vijay Gagrai and Sumit Chowdhury respectively.
In Jugsalai, the last minute demographic polarization was so sharp that one of the candidates, who had demanded deployment of central forces and complained to the DC against JSMC chairperson, had actually withdrawn from the fray a day ahead of polling saying “I am pulling out of the contest supporting Nausheen Khan in view of the interest of our community.”
The development came immediately after union minister and BJP star campaigner Giriraj Singh’ roadshow in Jugsalai where he said that the Muslims were not a minority community in many parts of the country any more. The JSMC chairperson Hedyatullah Khan responded by promising that if people of Jugsalai voted his wife, they would see to it that names of anyone from the community is deleted from the voter list through special intensive revision (SIR).
Nausheen Khan went on to defeat BJP-supported Rinku Singh by just 720 votes, which interestingly is much less than the number of the total ballots rejected- 1798. Though the rejected ballots didn’t appear as crucial in Mango where 7969 ballot papers were rejected while corner state health minister Banna Gupta’s wife Sudha Gupta defeated BJP’s Sandhya Singh by a margin of 18,601 votes.
The BJP ‘rebels’, however, proved a crucial factor in Mango with Sushila Singh took away 4091 votes, Dr Vanita Sahay cut away 1688 votes. Though former BJP city unit president Rajkumar Srivastav’s wife Kumkum Srivastava didn’t mange much votes but, her husband’s expulsion from the party ending 45-year-old relationship with the party did spoil the atmosphere.
Mango mayoral poll, however, also threw a welcome change of voting on community lines which was evident in suspended Congress ‘rebel’ candidate Shaista Parveen alias Zeba Khan mustering 11, 166 votes and Zeba Quadri 2918 votes, defying all the so-called fatwas by different ulemas.
In Chakulia, three candidates from the BJP were in the fray - official candidate Chandana Murmu and two ‘unofficial’ candidates Sandhya Rani Sardar and Shilavati Tudu. Expectedly, JMM’s Sombari Soren won the chairperson post by defeating Chandana with a margin of just 727 votes with Sandhya Rani Sardar cutting away 2119 votes and Shilavati Tudu another 260 votes.
In Adityapur, BJP’s Sanjay Sardar defeated JMM-supported Bhuglu Soren alias Dabba Soren by 7795 votes to become first tribal mayor of Adityapur 13 years after Radha Sandil had donned the post last in 2013. Seraikela MLA and former Jharkhand CM Champai Soren’s prodigy Savitri Leyangi did cut away 7906 votes, BJP rebel Basko Besra 7787 votes and Vinoti Hansda took away another 5430 votes but that wasn’t enought to stop Sanjay’s victory march.
The story in Seraikela was, however, just the opposite where Champai Soren’s MLA representative Sanad Acharya cut away 2342 votes while JMM’s Manoj Kumar Choudhary went on to defeat Congress’s Raja Pratap Aditya Singh Dev by 898 votes. BJP’s Sumit Chowdhury ended up with 2292 votes, which when added with Sanad Acharya’s votes, easily supasses Manoj Choudhary’s votes.
It was close fight in both Chaibasa and Chakradharpur where JMM’s Nitin Prakash defeated BJP’s Ramesh Khirwal by 1008 votes with Faiyaz Khan cutting away 8786 votes. In Chakradharpur, local JMM MLA’s son Sunny Oraon defeated BJP’s Vijay Gagrai, brother of JMM Kharsawan MLA Dashrath Gagrai, by 1167 votes with Anupriya Soy cutting away 2036 votes. In Kapali Nagar Parishad (KNP), independent Parvez Alam led from the first round to defeat JMM’s Sarwar Alam by a margin of 1630 votes.
“Three of the candidates in fray were from our party. Has there been one candidate, we would have won the Chakulia top post hands down. The party had selected the right candidate - educated, well-behaved and friendly nature. But all aspirants can’t be made candidates. Then ballot papers and administration played spoilsport too. Had there been party symbol, the result would have been different,” Chandi Charan Saw, BJP East Singhbhum rural president, told HT on Saturday.
BJP Jamshedpur Mahanagar president Sanjeev Sinha said that demography, rejected ballots, biased administration and vote cutters did play a role in the party losing out in both Mango and Jugsalai.
“Apart from the last minute polarization, Mango Municipal Corporation (MMC) area and Jugsalai Nagar Parishad (JNP) areas have always been tough for BJP be it Lok Sabha or Assembly elections. Unofficial party candidates and supporters didn’t play much role but the rejected ballots papers did prove key factor in Jugsalai. In Mango, Sushila Singh’s symbol ‘CCTV’ was put right under Sanjay Singh’s symbol ‘Camera’ leading to confusion, or else Sushila Singh wouldn’t have got 4000 votes. How partisan the administration was not hidden from anyone in both Jugsalai and Mango. JMM fielded a Hindu candidate in Jugsalai while taking giving a silent go-ahead to Nausheen Khan. They talked of action but did nothing despite Nausheen Khan contesting against official JMM candidate. Anyway, we welcome the people’s verdict humbly. There is and always be victory and defeat in elections but BJP is not just about election politics - we are with the people serving then 365 days a year and decades after decades. We have many ULBs across the state - even winners in Hazaribagh and Dhanbad are from our party,” Sinha told HT on Saturday.
