Jharkhand Election Results: BJP allies LJP, JD(U) fail to open account

Ranchi, Dec 23: Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party and Nitish Kumar led-Janata Dal (United) faced its worst defeat so far as the party failed to even open its account in Jharkhand polls.

As per the latest trends, JDU, hovering around 0.70 per cent may fail to get 1 per cent vote share in Jharkhand. LJP gets 0.27 per cent votes.

LJP, a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in Bihar and the Centre, went solo in the state election after an apparent snub from the BJP.

Though the LJP was keen for an alliance with the BJP, the saffron party was reluctant as its leaders believed that the regional party did not have much to offer electorally in the state.

The Janata Dal (United), an NDA ally headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also parted ways with the BJP in the state and went for a solo battle.

The AJSU broke away from the BJP before the elections.

Going by the trends, the JMM-Congress-RJD combine is in a comfortable position to form the government. The BJP, on the other hand, is way below the magic mark of 41 to form the government.

The BJP at the moment is the single largest party with leads in 29 seats. The JMM is behind the BJP with 24 seats.

In the Lok Sabha election held in April and May, the BJP bagged 12 of the 14 parliamentary seats in Jharkhand (four more than that of 2009), proving how the Modi wave-influenced its politics.

What happened in 2014 elections?

In the last state election, the BJP contested on 72 seats, AJSU eight seats and LJP one seat. The BJP took home 37 seats and AJSU five, but LJP scored a duck.

The Congress will contest on 31 seats, its ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on 43 seats and the rest has gone to jailed leader Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

In 2014, the JMM took 19 seats, the Congress only six from the 62 it contested and the RJD drew a blank.