Jharkhand election results: Hemant Soren leads in both seats

As per the trends till noon, the JMM has done reasonably well in the Santhal Pargana region, which has 16 assembly constituencies and where the party is strongest.

As the trends in the counting of votes in Jharkhand points towards Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Hemant Soren-led Opposition alliance crossing the halfway mark, Soren himself is leading on both the seats from where he contested the assembly election.

JMM working president Hemant Soren during an election rally at Amrapahari of Jama assembly in Dumka on Tuesday December 18. (HT Photo)

Hemant Soren is leading by 2463 votes from Dumka assembly seat and 8616 votes from Barhait. His sister-in-law Sita Soren, meanwhile, is trailing from Jama assembly segment.

All the three seats are in Dumka Lok Sabha seat, which was considered the bastion of JMM founder Shibu Soren and father of Hemant. Shibu Soren himself lost the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Dumka assembly seat.

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Lois Mirandi of the BJP and welfare minister in Raghubar Das government is behind Soren in Dumka and has received about 44 per cent of the votes counted as compared to 48 per cent for Soren. In Jama, Suresh Murmu has got 41.66 per cent votes as compared to about 39 per cent for Sita.

In Barhait, Hemant seems comfortable as he has got about 53 per cent votes as compared to 35.45 per cent for Simon Malto of the BJP. Soren is incumbent lawmaker from Barhait.

As Hemant was the main face of the Opposition alliance, he had campaigned only in the two constituencies during the last phase. His brother Basant Soren was in-charge of the two constituencies and had conducted campaign on behalf of his brother.

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.