A representative image showing the map of Jharkhand
Credit: iStock Photo
The Jharkhand Assembly Elections 2024 will take place in two phases -- on November 13 and 20 -- to elect the 81 members of the assembly. The tenure of the fifth Jharkhand assembly is slated to end on January 5, 2025, and results to the upcoming polls will be declared on November 23, this year.
With that in mind, let us take a look at how Jharkhand voted in the first assembly elections.
Jharkhand was formed in 2000, on November 15, and MLAs from the 2000 Bihar assembly elections formed the first legislative assembly of Jharkhand. The MLAs whose constituencies fell in the newly formed Jharkhand were part of the assembly there. However, the first election saw a hung assembly where no single party or pre-election alliance managed to secure a majority.
The first legislative assembly elections in Jharkhand was only conducted in 2005.
At that time, the NDA alliance emerged victorious over the UPA alliance. BJP was the single-biggest winner with 30 seats, out of the 63 it contested. JD(U), also part of the NDA alliance, managed to win six of the 18 seats it contested.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) was in alliance with Congress at that time as well and secured 17 of the 49 seats it contested, while the grand old party managed to win nine of the 41 seats it had contested.
Currently, Jharkhand is going to polls with the JMM in power, but the BJP looking to make a comeback, galvanised by its recent assembly poll performance in Haryana, and on the back of the troubles plaguing Hemant Soren over an alleged land scam case.
The Congress and JMM remain in alliance but are now part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc which was formed ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year, to present a united opposition to the BJP. However, there seem to be fissures in the bloc over the RJD being snubbed for seat-sharing talks in the poll-bound state.
Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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