- Sat, 31 Jul, 2010, 2:21 am -

Ranchi: The people of Jharkhand have done it yet again! The eagerly awaited poll results have pronounced a hung Assembly this time too. The Congress-JVM alliance has emerged as the largest with 25 and followed by BJP –JD(U) with 20.

JMM now holds all the trump cards with 18 and will decide the fate of next government in the State. Both RJD and AJSU with 5seats each may come into play at a later stage. The surprising outcome of the elections is that most of the tainted ministers and their candidates have emerged victorious. Jailed former ministers Enos Ekka and Hari Narain Rai have been re-elected with comfortable margins while former CM Madhu Koda’s( who is also in jail) wife Geeta Koda making her debut in politics won with a thumping majority from Jagannathpur. Bandhu Tirkey retained his Mandar seat with a victory margin of over 30 thousand votes. It is obvious from the results that corruption was hardly a factor in these elections. Babulal Marandi’s JVM , fighting the elections for the first time, received a tumultuous welcome with people electing 11 of its candidates. The Congress too increased its tally to 14 from the 9 it had last time. The worst sufferer was BJP which had 30 last time and this year reduced to 18. AJSU also increased its tally by adding three more to its existing two. The verdict clearly is against the NDA if not pro UPA.
Shibhu Soren has made it clear that he would support the alliance that agrees to make him the CM and if NDA agrees then even AJSU too would have to be roped in to attain majority, whereas on the other hand if Congress-JVM combine agree to accept Shibhu as the CM then the Independants’ role would cease to exist.

- Raghavan