Jharkhand polls: Three Former Chief Ministers suffer reverses

Former Chief Ministers of Jharkhand - Babulal Marandi, Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda suffered poll reverses in the assembly election, counting for which was held today, while outgoing CM Hemant Soren won from one seat and lost from another constituency.

Soren won the Barhait seat defeating Hemlal Murmu of BJP by 24,087 votes but he lost the Dumka seat to his BJP rival Lois Marandi by 5262 votes. Dumka, which is part of the JMM bastion in Santhal Parganas, had been the pocket borough of his father Shibu Soren, who did not contest this time. Hemant himself had contested and won from the seat in 2009.

Three-time Chief Minister and BJP Jharkhand heavyweight leader Arjun Munda suffered a shock defeat in his home seat of Kharsawan to JMM's Dasrath Gagrai by 11,966 votes. Former Chief Minister and Jai Bharat Samanta Party (JBSP) chief Madhu Koda, who had been recently chargesheeted by CBI in the coal block allocation scam, lost the Majhgaon seat.

The only bright spot for the party was his wife Geeta Koda retaining her Jagannthapur seat. Jharkhand's first Chief Minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) chief Babulal Marandi lost the Dhanwar seat to CPI(ML-Liberation) candidate Raj Kumar Yadaw by over 10,000 votes. In the Giridih seat, which was the second seat contested by him, Marandi emerged a poor third position after BJP candidate Sudivya Kumar and JMM candidate.