Jharkhand Election Results 2019 live updates: Will take oath as CM on December 29, says Hemant Soren

Against the backdrop of BJP’s sweep in the 2019 LS polls in May, Jharkhand joined hands with Haryana and Maharashtra in suggesting that state polls are different and the opposition offers more effective alternatives than on the national stage. A buoyant opposition believes pressure from the ground will not only hurt the Modi-led BJP with popular vote but also with partners. Read full story

With 73,332 votes (42.57%), Saryu Roy dislodged Raghubar Das from Jamshedpur after five consecutive terms since 1995. Das finished second with 33.45% votes, followed by Congress debutant Gourav Vallabh, who bagged 18,868 votes. Read full story

Raghubar Das, Jharkhand’s first non-tribal chief minister who often takes pride in calling himself “son of a mazdoor”, emerged the biggest loser on Monday despite successfully running the first stable government since the state was formed in 2000. Das went to the extent of picking candidates of his choice and denying tickets to several sitting MLAs, including cabinet colleague Saryu Rai. This earned him a band of dissenters. Read full story

BJP has been different from Congress because of the room it allows its state-level leaders. This, though could change after the party lost polls in Jharkhand. The loss of one more state is likely to lead the party to question the approach to concede the primacy of CMs in respective jurisdictions. Read full story

The 44-year-old Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief led his party to its highest seat tally ever in the state and, along the way, achieved another feat that opposition parties in other states have struggled to do — win more seats than BJP on their own steam. The JMM show also marked the end of BJP’s experiment with a non-tribal CM, Raghubar Das, in a state carved out for adivasis. Read full story

Hemant Soren of JMM is set to take over as chief minister, returning to the job he held for a year before BJP won in 2015. BJP slipped to 25 seats from 37 it held in 2014. BJP's break with AJSU Party may have proved critical as the vote share of the two parties — BJP (33%) and AJSU (8%) — suggests that they could have made a fight of it if the alliance had held. Read full story

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working president Hemant Soren on Monday thanked Narendra Modi after the Prime Minister congratulated him and JMM-led alliance for their victory in the Jharkhand assembly elections. "Thank you Prime Minister Narendra Modiji for your wishes. Your coordination is very valuable to the poor population of Jharkhand," Soren said in a tweet. Read full story