Jharkhand Election Result: JMM Retains Tribal Seats, Champai Card Fails For BJP

This time, the BJP has wrested only one ST seat from JMM — Saraikella, where Champai Soren won by a margin of 25,000 votes. The party lost two ST seats in Ranchi to JMM. 

(Image: The Quint/@Kamran Akhter)

As election results to Jharkhand’s 81-member Assembly trickled in on 23 November, the INDIA alliance took a comfortable lead in at least 57 seats—more than the halfway mark of 44.  

In Jharkhand, the INDIA alliance comprises of the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) or the CPI(ML).  

Meanwhile the BJP, which was aiming to unseat the JMM-led alliance in the state government, is leading in 20 seats, as per the Election Commission of India. The party’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — Janata Dal (United) and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) are leading in one seat each. However, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), another NDA ally, has made no gains at all.  

(Screenshot: Election Commission as of 5pm on 23 November)

In the last election, the BJP had won 25 seats, while the Congress and JMM had similar number of seats. 

Not only seats, but the BJP’s vote share in Jharkhand has also dropped—by a significant 12 percent from 33.8 percent in 2019 to 21 percent in 2024.  

Jharkhand has a significant population of Scheduled Tribes (ST), with 28 of the total 81 seats, i.e. one in three seats being reserved for candidates belonging to the community. Let’s take a look at how political parties fared on ST seats.  

Champai Soren’s Switch Had No Effect

In the 2019 Assembly elections in Jharkhand, Soren’s JMM had won 19 seats, the Congress had won six seats, while the BJP had taken two seats of the total 28 ST seats.  

This time, the BJP has wrested only one ST seat from JMM — Saraikella, where Champai Soren won by a margin of 25,000 votes. The party lost two ST seats in Ranchi to JMM. 

Champai, who served as the chief minister of Jharkhand while Hemant Soren was in jail for five months after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate, dissented in August and jumped ship to the BJP.  

While BJP had hoped this switch by Champai—considered to be a tall leader in the state’s Kolhan region—would tip the tribal votes in the party’s favour, but it didn’t create any difference on ground. Champai has held the Saraikella seat for more than 25 years, since before the bifurcation of Bihar.   

In other words, the BJP couldn’t succeed in portraying JMM as a party that disrespects its senior tribal leaders as it had expected by giving Champai a ticket. Meanwhile, Hemant Soren won from the Barhait seat with a margin of nearly 40,000 votes.

BJP Loses Two ST Seats to JMM

Soren’s JMM wrested two ST seats in Ranchi—Khunti and Torpa—from the BJP by a substantial vote margin.  

In fact, Khunti has been a BJP stronghold for the past 20 years, with the party’s candidate Nilkanth Singh Munda being elected as the MLA from the seat for five consecutive terms. This time though, he has been defeated by JMM’s Ram Surya Munda by at least 41,000 seats.  

Khunti, earlier a part of Ranchi seat, became a separate seat only in 2007.  

While the Congress has managed to retain all ST seats it had won in 2019, it has also gained the Mandar seat in Ranchi district, which was earlier held by Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik).  

With this, the BJP seems to have been completely wiped out in tribal-dominated areas in Jharkhand, with the exception of Champai Soren's Saraikella seat.