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Hung House fuels Soren’s CM hopes
Jharkhand’s voters once again delivered a fractured mandate on Wednesday, with no party or alliance anywhere close to forming a government, reports B Vijay Murty.Koda's wife wins | Listen to podcast 
RESULTS | Jharkhand 81/81PartyResultsCong +25BJP +20JMM18RJD +5Others13
Jharkhand’s voters once again delivered a fractured mandate on Wednesday, with no party or alliance anywhere close to forming a government. The verdict
While the Congress-Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatan-trik) alliance has emerged with a tally of 24 of the state’s 81 assembly seats.
The NDA alliance of the BJP and the Janata Dal (United) has won 21 seats.
A resurgent Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which had disassociated with its UPA allies and had gone it alone in the poll, won 18 seats scoring one seat higher than in the last polls of January 2005.
With both Congress-JVM-P alliance and NDA falling way behind the requisite strength to form the government, JMM has emerged as the kingmaker. It is keeping its option open.
“I have the keys to government formation,” an elated JMM chief Sibu Soren, 65, said after the results.
His party leaders said in Ranchi that they would not bargain with any alliance for anything less than the chief minister’s chair for Soren.
Congress Jharkhand-in-charge, Keshav Rao said that being the largest alliance, they had the rightful claim to the CM’s post, but added; they were ready for talks with their old UPA ally. The beleaguered BJP camp did not deny the possibilities of extending support to JMM for a non-Congress government formation.
“JMM is not an untouchable for us,” former chief minister Arjun Munda of the BJP said. The JMM too made it clear it was ready to meet BJP halfway.
Former Chief Minister Madhu Koda’s wife Geeta Koda won the Jagannathpur seat defeating her BJP rival by over 8000 votes. Dedicating the victory to her husband who is in jail on charges of amassing disproportionate assets, the 26-year-old said her priority would be to bring her husband back to his people.
