Early trends indicate hung Jharkhand assembly

Jharkhand was on Wednesday headed towards a hung assembly with indications that no political group or combine was likely to get a majority in the 81-member house.

In trends available for the 81 seats, for which counting was on, the BJP and its ally JD(U) were ahead in 24 seats on Wednesday while the Congress-JVM(P) alliance was leading in 23 of the 81 constituencies in the state.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which was ahead in 19 seats, was emerging as a strong player in the government formation in the state, which has been under the president's rule for almost a year now.

But the JMM has already put a rider for supporting any political alliance.

"We will support only those who will favour Shibu Soren (the JMM chief) as the new chief minister," JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said.

Independent candidate Geeta Koda, the wife of former chief minister Madhu Koda has won over her rivals in the Jagganthpur seat.

Prominent candidates trailing were former deputy chief minister Stephen Marandi of Congress and JMM's Hemant Soren in Dumka, where the BJP's Lois Marandi was leading.

Assembly Speaker and Congress candidate Alamgir Alam was also trailing from Pakur.

Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) was ahead in 6 seats.

The BJP was leading in seats like Ranchi, Dumka, Simdega, Khijri, Kanke, Majhgao and Shikaripara.

Counting of votes polled in the five-phased Jharkhand assembly elections began on Wednesday morning amid heavy security.

Jailed ex-minister Enos Ekka was trailing in the assembly seats of Kolibera and Simdega he contested from. Two other jailed former ministers, Kamlesh Singh and Harinarayan Rai, were, however, leading from Hussainabad and Jarmundi constituencies respectively.

There are about 30,000 security forces and 5,200 officials at the 31 counting centres in the state.

The staggered polls to the 81-member Jharkhand assembly were held between November 25 and December 18. A total of 1,511 candidates were in the fray and a 58% voter turnout was recorded.

The vote count is finally expected to end president's rule in the state. President's rule was imposed on January 19 after then chief minister Soren lost the Tamar assembly byelection.

Source - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com