PM Modi congratulated Hemant Soren for Jharkhand election win
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated JMM leader Hemant Soren and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led opposition alliance for their surprise win in today's elections, and offered them his "best wishes in serving the state". The JMM, which is at the head of a coalition consisting of the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), is set to record a massive win in the Jharkhand Assembly elections - it is leading in 47 seats in the 81-member Assembly while the BJP, which fell out with ally AJSU before polls, trailing with a distant 25 seats.
"Congratulations to @HemantSorenJMM-Ji and the JMM-led alliance for the victory in the Jharkhand polls. Best wishes to them in swerving the state," Prime Minister Modi, who was active in campaigning for his party throughout the five phases of the election, tweeted.
The Prime Minister, who also thanked "hardworking" party workers, thanked the people of the state for "having given the BJP the opportunity to serve the state for many years".
The loss in Jharkhand is a huge setback for the BJP, which last year lost Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the Congress.
Worse still, the party saw its control of Maharashtra - one of the biggest states in the country and home to India's financial capital, slip away after it fell out with ally Shiv Sena over power-sharing and saw the Sena form an unlikely alliance with the Congress and the NCP to form the government.
All of this comes despite a massive win in April-May Lok Sabha elections, in which the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won a landslide victory and the BJP crossed the 300-seat mark on its own.
Shortly before the PM tweeted Home Minister Amit Shah conceded defeat as well, saying the BJP would "respect the mandate given by the people of Jharkhand".
"We respect the mandate given by the people of Jharkhand. We want to thank people for giving us the opportunity to serve the state for five years. The BJP will remain committed for the development of the state," he said, thanking party workers for all the hard work they have put in.
At the time of writing this, the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance leading in 47 seats. The BJP was ahead in 25, down 12 from the last election.
This is a big shift from results in 2014, when the BJP - allied with the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) - bagged 42 seats and reduced the Congress to a mere six.
Earlier today the JMM's Hemant Soren, a former Chief Minister of the state, thanked the people of Jharkhand for giving them (the opposition alliance) a "mandate" and declared that it was time for the new government to work on all promises that were made.
"The results that have come so far... the people of Jharkhand have given us (a) mandate and I thank them for that. It is a day of celebration for the people and time for us to work on all promises that were made," Mr Soren told reporters.