The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Champai Soren won the Jharkhand Assembly polls from the Seraikela constituency on Saturday by 20,447 votes. The former chief minister has served five terms as the MLA from Seraikela. He secured 1,19,379 of the total votes counted.

Jharkhand rejected BJP's attempts to win elections by ramping up polarising narratives. BJP tried this in 2019 and again in the recent elections. Both times, Jharkhand chose Hemant Soren as their leader.

JMM’s voter share was lesser than BJP’s. While the Hemant Soren-led party managed to get 23.44 per cent of the total votes polled, the saffron party bagged a considerably higher 33.18 per cent share

Adverse results will also hit reputation of Shivraj Singh Chouhan & Himanta Sarma. Party erred by going for one-size-fits-all approach strategy, rues a BJP leader.

Defying exit poll predictions, the JMM is on the way to forming a government for a third term, with the alliance leading in nearly 50 seats, way above the halfway mark of 42.

Jharkhand held assembly elections in two phases, on November 13 and 20, for all 81 seats. Both the JMM-led alliance and the BJP-led NDA are optimistic about forming the government. Exit polls have predicted a possible edge for the BJP.