Arjun Munda scrapes to victory, Babulal and Shibu Soren bite the dust

Ranchi: Among the three former Chief Ministers who were contesting in the Lok Sabha elections from Jharkhand only Arjun Munda of the BJP managed to scrape through to victory from Khunti seat while two former Chief Ministers of Jharkhand including Babulal Marandi of the JVM(P) and Shibu Soren of the JMM had to taste defeats.

In a topsy-turvy battle for the Khunti Lok Sabha seat, the balance kept on changing between Arjun Munda and Kalicharan Munda of the Congress. However, Mr Munda held on to his nerve and managed to win the seat by a slender margin of 1098 votes.

In a major jolt for JVM(P) supremo and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, he was comprehensively defeated in Koderma Lok Sabha seat by Annapurna Devi of the BJP who trounced him by a whopping margin of 4,55,600 votes.

However, the most shocking result came from Santhal Pargana where JMM supremo and sitting MP Shibu Soren lost to his former disciple Sunil Soren of the BJP by a margin of 47,590 votes. Shibu Soren had represented Dumka eight times as an MP and was looking for his ninth terms from the constituency which has been reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.