Jharkhand Election Results: How The Stories Of Murder Revenge And Prestige Battles Played Out

The Jharkhand elections witnessed an intense battle with the JMM-led INDIA bloc emerging victorious. The intensity of the election was further boosted by the personal rivalries that played out.

From left: Vikas Munda, Ragini Singh, and Sita Murmu.

Source : ECI/PTI

The Jharkhand election fights were intense and Hemant Soren once again proved that his hold in the state cannot be weakened easily. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led INDIA bloc's win in Jharkhand was attributed to the coalition’s grassroots and tribal outreach. On the other hand, the BJP’s polarisation campaign targeting alleged infiltration from Bangladesh seems to have failed.

The Jharkhand elections were intense not just for the polarisation issues and the BJP's sharp attacks on Hemant Soren, they also witnessed several personal battles. Among these were the battles in Tamar and Jharia.

Tamar Election Result

Among the 'revenge' stories in Jharkhand was the one that played out in the Tamar assembly constituency where Vikas Munda trounced Gopal Krishna Patar. What made the battle personal? Vikas Munda, the sitting MLA from JMM, fought JD-U's Gopal Krishna Patar, who is accused of plotting with Naxals to murder Vikas's father Ramesh Munda in 2008.

Patar was sentenced to six years in prison and was released only last year.

Gopal Krishna Patar, a former Jharkhand minister, was eventually thrashed by 24,246 votes in Tamar by Vikas Munda.

Jharia Election Result

The Jharia contest was similar to a thriller movie plot where a murder within a family sparked tales of fights and revenge. BJP's Ragini Singh had more than one reason to celebrate her triumph over Congress's Purnima Singh.

She wrested the Jharia seat from Ragini, her arch-rival and her sister-in-law (co-sister). The bitterness in the family stems from the murder of Purnima's husband and Congress leader Neeraj Singh, who was allegedly killed by his cousin Sanjeev, the husband of Ragini Singh. Sanjeev is now in jail. Neeraj was a deputy mayor of Dhanbad. He was shot dead in 2017 when motorcycle-borne assailants pumped 67 AK-47 bullets into his body near his home.

Sanjeev Singh, on the other hand, is a former legislator from Jharia, a seat now won back by his wife Ragini. 

Ragini won the Jharia assembly election by a margin of 14,511 votes.

Jamtara Election Result

When speaking of family grudges spilling into the election arena, one cannot ignore the prestige battle of Sita (Soren) Murmu, the daughter-in-law of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren. Sita Soren resigned from the Soren family-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha right before the Lok Sabha elections this year.

Although still registered as a resident of the "Shibu Soren Awas", Sita Murmu sought to rise up the ranks in the party after her husband and Hemant Soren's elder brother Durga. She even won the Jama Assembly seat thrice. However, she claimed that she had been sidelined by the JMM. This eventually led her to join the BJP.

However, the BJP's strategy to move Sunil Soren to Dumka after Louis Marandi joined the JMM and field Sita Murmu in Jamtara fell flat on its face. While Sunil lost to Hemant's younger brother Basant, Sita lost to Irfan Ansari of the Congress.

For Irfan Ansari the battle in Shibu Soren's previous constituency was personal. Jamtara was the bastion of his father Furqan Ansari for a decade till the formation of Jharkhand. Irfan has now won the Jamtara seat thrice in a row.