Grand Alliance fails as BJP set to sweep Jharkhand

The Grand Alliance of opposition parties seems to have failed in the Lok Sabha elections Jharkhand if the counting trends and margins are any indication.

BJP is leading in 11 seats and its ally the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) in one seat. Both the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) are leading in one seat each.

The formal result declarations are delayed owing to the counting of VVPATs.

The BJP has registered a convincing lead in seven seats, and is locked in a tough fight in two constituencies -Khuti and Lohardagga.

Union Minister Jayant Sinha taken a big lead of over 388,461 votes over his rival Congress candidate Gopal Sahu.

Two former Chief Minister are likely to lose the polls, while a third one is struggling. JMM president Shibu Soren is trailing by over 32,651 votes from the BJP candidate Sunil Soren. Unconfirmed reports here say that Soren has lost the poll by over 42000 votes.

In Koderma, the BJP candidate Annapurna Devi has registered a lead of 447,099 votes over Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM-P) President and former Chief Minister Babulala Marandi.

Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda and the BJP's Khuti candidate has built a lead of 1,298 votes over Congress candidate Kalicharan Munda.

In Ranchi, BJP candidate Sanjay Seth has established a lead of 2,69,951 votes over Congress candidate Subodhkant Sahay.

In Lohardagga, Union Minister Sudarsan Bhagat of the BJP is locked in a tough fight against Congress candidate Sukhdeo Bhagat.

The BJP has also registered a good leads in the Palamau, Chatra, Godda and Dhanbad seats. AJSU has taken a convincing lead of more than 2,47,000 votes in Giridih.

The four parties - JMM, Congress, RJD and JVM-P had formed a Grand Alliance in Jharkhand to taken onthe BJP. The alliance seems to have not worked and JMM is set to lose its traditional Dumka seat.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has thanked the voters for reposing their faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"This is history. Under the leadership of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah development and national security became election issues and we won the election", he said.

--IANS

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