Narendra Modi-Amit Shah rallies bail out BJP in only eight of 20 seats

RANCHI: Though BJP put all its faith in its two most-celebrated campaigners, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, their charisma seem to have failed to impress voters of the state. Of the 20 assembly constituencies that the Prime Minister and the Union home minister held election rallies in, BJP managed to register victory only in eight, while mahagathbandhan parties won in 12. Jamshedpur East, which was targetted by Modi from Gopal Maidan, also went out of the saffron party, only to be claimed by independent candidate Saryu Rai. Modi had addressed nine and Shah addressed 11 election rallies during the fivephase assembly polls. They were backed up by a second rung of star campaigners like defence minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union ministers Smriti Irani and Nitin Gadkari, apart from party president J P Nadda.


But, all the poll rallies, roadshows and rhetoric on ‘Jharkhand Pukara Bhajpa Dobara’ and ‘Modi Hai To Mumkin Hai’ failed to translate into votes as the mahagathbandhan triumphed in 12 assembly segments where Modi and Shah had addressed mammoth election meetings. But, what could well be termed as the ‘insult to injury’ episode were the prestige seats of Jamshedpur (East) and Jamshedpur (West) where BJP candidates were defeated. In Jamshedpur Modi had addressed a huge rally in the Gopal Maidan at Bistupur on December 3 where he had spoken about wide-ranging issues encompassing the Ram temple at Ayodhya, revoking article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, scrapping of triple talaq law before talking about welfare measures taken by central and state governments.

Modi had tried to impress upon the audience that BJP was the only option while Congress and its allies were responsible for dynastic politics, corruption and anti-people activities. But, the poll mantra propagated fell flat when local political dynamics within the BJP tripped up the party’s fortunes in the twin assembly segments of Jamshedpur east and west. By refusing to field the sitting MLA, Saryu Rai the state BJP may have made one of its worst decisions.

Rai turned rebel and chose to challenge chief minister Raghubar Das in his home constituency Jamshedpur (East). Despite having won in his home constituency for five consecutive term, Das faced defeat as Rai triumphed with a margin of more than 15,700 votes. In Jamshedpur (West) too BJP lost to the Congress candidate Banna Gupta. Modi had signed off his poll campaign for Jharkhand at Bhognadih which is part of Barhait assembly constituency. The Modi factor failed in Barhait as JMM’s Hemant Soren, the chief ministerial candidate of Mahagathbandhan, won from Barhait by a margin of more than 25,740.

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