RANCHI: The Jharkhand results on Monday delivered a morale-boosting triumph to the Opposition with the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance winning a snug majority of 47 seats in a House of 81, and another state slipping out of BJP's hands after its big sweep in the Lok Sabha elections that returned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a second term.
Hemant Soren of JMM is set to take over as chief minister, returning to the job he held for a year before BJP won in 2015. The oath ceremony will take place on Thursday.
BJP slipped to 25 seats from 37 it held in 2014, its choice to contest alone after failed discussions with regional ally AJSU Party backfiring and the party ceding the status of “single-largest party” for the first time. The contrast to the sweep in the LS elections — BJP won 11 and AJSU one of Jharkhand's 14 seats — a little over six months ago was astonishing.