Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Voters don’t repeat MP in Singhbhum for decades

Other than Bagun Sumbrui none could win the seat consecutively.

Voters in Singhbhum constituency have changed their parliamentarian in every Lok Sabha elections in the past three decades – with Bagun Sumbrui (died last year) an exception.

Sumbrui won the seat four times in 1997, 1980, 1984 and 1989. Other than him, none of the elected MP could win the seat for two consecutive terms.

Other than three MPs from Singhbhum including Kannu Ram Deogam (1951), Shambhu Charan (1957) and Madhu Koda (2009), other winners had contested the seat for continuous second term but voters rejected all the outgoing MPs.

Sumbrui won five times including four continuous elections in 1977, 1980, 1984, 1989 and 2004. He had won the first election as Akhil Bharatiya Jharkhand Party and rest as Congress candidate.

Laxman Gilua is another MP who won the seat for second term but with a break between the two. He had won the seat on BJP ticket for the first time in 1999 but lost to Sumbrui in next election in 2004.

MPs including Haricharan Soy (1962), Kolai Birua (1967), Moran Singh Purty (1971), Krishna Mardi (1991), Chitrasen Sinku (1996), Vijay Singh Soy (1998) and Laxman Gilua (1999) had contested the seat for second term but lost.

In this election, BJP candidate Laxman Gilua is likely to compete with Gita Koda for the seat. Koda is contesting on Congress ticket.

Her husband and the then member of Parliament, Madhu Koda, had not contested the election in 2014. Gita Koda had contested from the seat on his party (Jai Bharat Samanta Party) ticket in the last election, but lost to Gilua. She had joined the Congress in October 2018 and both would fight for the seat again.

In-charge of BJP West Singhbhum committee Rambabu Tiwari said that election history was not in favour of the party candidate-cum-state BJP president Laxman Gilua but voters have also elected him twice and they would elect him again.

“BJP’s Union and state government has various achievements while Singhbhum MP has also done development works for the constituency. Party workers are confident to win the seat,” Tiwari said.

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Year Winner

1951 Kanu Ram Deogam

1957 Shambhu Charan

1962 Haricharan Soy

1967 Kolai Birua

1971 Moran Singh Purty

1977 Bagun Sumbrui

1980 Bagun Sumbrui

1984 Bagun Sumbrui

1989 Bagun Sumbrui

1991 Krishna Mardi

1996 Chitrasen Sinku

1998 Vijay Singh Soy

1999 Laxman Gilua

2004 Bagun Sumbrui

2009 Madhu Koda

2014 Laxman Gilua