The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)’s candidate Somesh Chandra Soren clinched the Ghatsila Assembly seat bypoll in Jharkhand Friday as he defeated his BJP rival Babulal Soren by 38,524 votes.
Somesh secured 1,04,794 votes as against Babulal’s 66,270, while the Jharkhand Loktantrik Krantikari Morcha (JLKM)’s Ramdas Murmu was placed in third position with 11,542 votes.
While Somesh maintained a consistent lead through the day, the trends fluctuated in the early rounds between the second and third positions. In the first round itself, the JMM took the lead, followed by the JLKM, with the principal Opposition BJP in third place. This happened during the counting of votes from the Galudih area inhabited by the Mahato group, where the JLKM traditionally performs well.
In subsequent rounds of counting of votes from Ghatsila town, Dhalbhumgarh, Ghurabanda, Jadugoda, and eventually Musabani, the BJP moved into second position.
Two days before the bypoll, the Jharkhand BJP’s newly-appointed working president Aditya Sahu accused the JMM of “desperation”, alleging that the JMM-led INDIA alliance’s ministers and MLAs were active in all 56 panchayats across the constituency even after the end of the campaigning period in their alleged attempts to influence voters. He also claimed that the bypoll would reflect “public dissatisfaction” with the ruling coalition which would “have to introspect”.
However, the JMM showed confidence in its bid for the seat from the beginning, maintaining that the contest was a matter of prestige for the party as well as the BJP.
The election result would not have any major impact on the Hemant Soren-led government. The JMM-led alliance currently has 55 MLAs in the 81-member House, while the BJP-led NDA has 24.
The Ghatsila by-election was necessitated by the death of sitting JMM MLA and education minister Ramdas Soren. The JMM fielded his son Somesh for the bypoll, which saw a voter turnout of 74.63% – an increase of 4.48% from the 2024 Assembly election.
The Ghatsila constituency has around 2.55 lakh voters. In 2024, Ramdas Soren had defeated Babulal Soren by 22,446 votes.
JMM president and Chief Minister Hemant Soren led an aggressive campaign for the bypoll, mobilising his entire Cabinet to campaign for Somesh. Hemant and his wife Kalpana Soren, the JMM MLA, held several rallies and roadshows across Ghatsila, showcasing welfare programmes like the Maiya Samman Yojana.
The outcome indicates that the JMM’s formidable tribal base has consolidated further. This has also established Hemant’s political dominance in the Kolhan region, which has been associated with his BJP rival and former JMM leader and CM Champai Soren, who is currently an MLA from Seraikella. The Ghatsila constituency falls in the Kolhan region, with Champai dubbed the “Kolhan tiger”.
The Ghatsila bypoll outcome is seen as a setback for the BJP, which had hoped to improve on its performance in the 2024 polls. The party built
its campaign around its allegations of “Bangladeshi infiltration” and divisions between Sarna and Chrisitian tribals, which came a cropper.
Some observers said the Ghatsila verdict reinforced the need for the BJP to rethink its organisational and electoral strategies in tribal-dominated constituencies in Jharkhand.
On the alliance front, the result seems to have also strengthened the JMM’s bargaining power within the INDIA alliance. The party had earlier expressed its discontent against its allies like the RJD and Congress for leaving it in the cold in their seat-sharing deal for the Bihar Assembly elections, where they have been routed.