When 25 Votes Decided Fate: BJP’s Shocking Defeat In Jharkhand Elections 2009

The narrative of narrow victories and dramatic contests that unfolds out of Jharkhand’s past election results is fascinating, with the counting of votes for the state’s 81-member Assembly elections nearing on November 23. Since its inception, Jharkhand has seen both razor-thin wins and landslide triumphs, underscoring the high stakes of electoral battles in the region.

In the 2009 assembly elections, Jharkhand witnessed the narrowest victory in its history in the Hatia constituency, as BJP candidate Ramji Lal Sharda lost by just 25 votes to the Congress rival Gopal SN Shahdev. Shahdev secured 39,921 votes, while Sharda fell short by only 25 votes with 39,896 votes.

In the 2005 elections, it was a close finish in the Hussainabad constituency: NCP candidate Kamlesh Singh barely won by a margin of just 35 votes over RJD’s Sanjay Singh Yadav. Even in the 2014 elections, BJP’s Koche Munda lost to JMM’s Paulus Surin by a margin of 43 votes in Torpa constituency.

Tightly Contested Elections Till Date

Several constituencies in Jharkhand’s electoral history have seen victory margins below 500 votes. For instance:

• In Simdega (2019), the winner prevailed by just 285 votes.
• Chakradharpur (2009) saw a 290-vote margin.
• Barkagaon (2014) was decided by 411 votes.
• Khunti (2009) and Latehar (2005) recorded margins of 436 and 438 votes, respectively.

Big Names And Bigger Margins

While some constituencies were left gasping to the very end, others were not so closely fought. BJP’s Biranchi Narayan gave such a wide lead in the 2014 elections that he won Bokaro by a miraculous margin of 72,643 votes. Narayan secured 1,14,321 votes as compared to 41,678 by independent candidate Samaresh Singh.

The party’s Raghuvar Das, who was a former Chief Minister, also won from Jamshedpur East (2014) by thrashing the Congress candidate Anand Bihari Dubey by 70,157 votes.

Major victories also witnessed in the 2019 elections. Congress’s Alamgir Alam from Pakur won by 65,108 votes, defeating BJP’s Beni Prasad Gupta. Some of the huge margins are as follows:-

• 64,912 votes in Khijri in 2014.
• 60,565 votes in Baharagora in 2019.
• 59,804 votes in Kanke in 2014.

High-Stakes Contests

The recently ended elections brought family ties and political legacies to the forefront. The Chief Minister Hemant Soren ran alongside his wife, Kalpana Soren, and brother, Basant Soren, as a JMM candidate. At the same time, his sister-in-law, Sita Soren, was contesting as a BJP candidate.

Former Chief Ministers and their family members were also prominent. Purnima Das Sahu, daughter-in-law of Odisha Governor and erstwhile Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghuvar Das, was in the fray. Meera Munda and Geeta Koda are wife of Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda respectively and competed for key constituencies.

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