Jharkhand poll outcome to help reduce BJP footprint: Pawar

Mumbai, Dec 24: The mandate in Jharkhand, where the JMM-Congress alliance has scored an emphatic victory in the just-concluded Assembly polls, underlines a new pattern which will help reduce the BJP's saffron footprint across the country, NCP chief Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday.

The former Union minister hailed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led three-party opposition alliance's poll victory in the tribal state where the BJP has been ousted from power.

"Congratulations to @HemantSorenJMM for the stunning electoral victory of the alliance in the Jharkhand polls.

"The Jharkhand mandate underlines a new pattern which will help the process of reducing the BJPs saffron footprint across the country," Pawar tweeted.

JMM leader Hemant Soren, the son of Jharkhand architect Shibu Soren, is set to take over as the new chief minister.

The coalition, comprising the JMM, the Congress and the RJD, has won 47 of the state's 81 seats. The BJP bagged 25 seats, down from 37 it had won in 2014.

Jharkhand, which came into existence in 2000, joins a clutch of stats which have slipped out of the BJP's control in the last one year.

The Amit Shah-led party lost Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in late 2018. The saffron outfit lost Maharashtra after its one-time ally Shiv Sena snapped ties with it and joined hands with the Congress and the NCP to form government in the western state in late November.