Ranchi bypolls: BJP retains Godda, Congress Panki

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Former Odisha director general of police Sanjeev Marik, the candidate for Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) poled 18,337 votes.

In Panki, Congress candidate Devendra Singh won the seat by a margin of 3,558, polling a total of 56,343 votes. He defeated JMM’s Shashi Bhushan Mehta, who polled 52,785 votes. BJP’s Lal Suraj was at the third position polling 36,028 votes.

Devendra’s father Bidesh Singh was the sitting Congress MLA from Panki.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das congratulated the Party workers and leaders saying the winning margin in Godda was higher than last time and so was the total number of votes polled.

“We never used to contest Panki. Considering this, we have done well. We will increase our presence there,” said a BJP spokesperson.

Congress blamed the Godda loss on ‘sympathy wave’ for BJP’s candidate. “In Panki, the BJP’s candidate is at the third position. This shows that the work of the government has not had any effect on the people. They won in Godda because of sympathy,” said Rajiv Thakur, state Congress spokesperson.

The JMM too attributed their performance to sympathy. “We came pretty close in Panki. In Godda, there was a wave of sympathy for the BJP candidate. We will examine what more could have been done to win the seat,” said JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya.

The bypolls were necessitated following deaths of Raghunandan Mandal and Bidesh Singh earlier this year.