Jharkhand Assembly Polls: BJP to wait and watch till final results are out

The Bharatiya Janata Party will have a wait and watch strategy till the time the final results of the Jharkhand Assembly election are out, informed spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi. "The trends available right now are not as per our expectations. But we shall wait for the final tally to arrive and only after analyzing that can we decide on a future course," he said. According to the latest data from the Election Commission, the BJP is ahead on 29 seats.

Alliance equation playing role

Trivedi said that local alliances might have a role in BJP's fall in seat tally. "To what we know now is that our vote share has increased but our seats are getting lower than expected. This can happen because of opposition parties sticking together while our allies are staying away. But things will be clear once the final results are out."

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CAA, NRC not election issues

When asked if the Citizenship Amendment Act played a role in BJP's lower-than-expected performance, Sudhanshu Trivedi said, "CAA and NRC are not election issues. They are related to national security, integrity, and unity... The matter came while polls were underway, so there is no relation." He added, "Our vote share has increased but due to local issues and alliance equations, our support through vote share has not reflected on seats as per current trends."

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Jharkhand Assembly Election

The opposition has forged an alliance comprising Congress, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Hemant Soren of JMM will be the Chief Ministerial face of this tie-up. The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) led by Babulal Marandi did not join the opposition alliance. On the other hand, BJP and its long-term ally All Jharkhand Student's Union (AJSU) have contested the elections separately. The incumbent CM Raghubar Das is the BJP’s candidate for the post again if it comes back to power.

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The Jharkhand assembly elections recorded the overall voter turnout of 65.17% compared to the 66.53% recorded in the 2014 elections. For the first time since Jharkhand's creation 19 years ago, Assembly elections to all the 81 seats passed off without violence by Maoists.

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