Gandey Assembly Poll Results: Kalpana Soren Cements Position In JMM With Another Win

Gandey assembly election result: Kalpana Soren has retained her Gandey Assembly seat that she had won in the bypoll earlier this year.

Gandey election results: Kalpana Soren has retained her Gandey seat in Jharkhand.

Source : PTI

Gandey Assembly Poll Results: The Kalpana Soren-vs-Muniya Devi fight in Gandey became a talking point in the run-up to the Jharkhand elections. Going into the polls, Kalpana Soren, the wife of incumbent Chief Minister Hemant Soren, was riding the momentum of the win in the bypoll earlier this year. On the other hand, Giridih District Council chairperson Muniya Devi, who debuted in the assembly election this year on a BJP ticket, was banking on the anti-incumbency sentiment in Jharkhand.

Kalpana Soren won the Gandey seat by a margin of nearly 10,000 votes. Kalpana had a scare in the initial rounds when Muniya Devi took the lead and showed signs of winning.

While a loss for Kalpana Soren would have meant a major blow to the Soren family, her win has strengthened her position in the party and opened up the possibilities of her bagging a Cabinet berth or a senior post in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

The Gandey seat was important for the JMM as it was this seat that propelled Kalpana to the limelight after Hemant Soren went to jail in an alleged money laundering case earlier this year. The JMM's main vote bank, Muslims and tribals, comprise around 40% of the electorate here.

Gandey saw a polling percentage of 73.39, which was the highest in Giridih district.

Jharkhand assembly elections were held in two phases on November 13 and 20. Overall, Jharkhand recorded a turnout of 68.95%, which was higher than that of Maharashtra's 66.05%.

The Jharkhand elections saw one of the fiercest campaigns, the recipe of which had nearly everything we can expect in a poll campaign in India. The campaign saw political slugfests over claims of corruption, Bangladeshi infiltration, ouster of Hindus, change in demographics, non-release of funds, announcement of 'populist schemes', and a lot more.

The Jharkhand elections were filled with political rhetoric. The alleged claim of Bangladeshi infiltration became a major poll plank for the first time in the state's electoral history. While the BJP's pre-poll campaigns featured around "roti, beti, and maati (livelihood, women, and land)", the INDIA bloc's attack focused on tribal issues, caste census, and reservation. A total of 1,211 candidates fought in the Jharkhand elections.

Under the political battles, there were several personal prestige battles being fought in Jharkhand this year, such as those of Sita Soren, Purnima Singh, Ragini Singh, Vikas Munda, Champai Soren, and Kalpana Soren, among others.