RANCHI: At the by-election for the Ramgarh Assembly seat in Jharkhand, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) candidate Sunita Chowdhary succeeded against the Congress candidate Bajrang Mahto by a margin of 21,970 votes, giving the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) a victory.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and the Left parties all backed the Congress candidate, but he or she was soundly defeated.
Following the 2019 Assembly elections, the state held a total of five by-elections, and the state's ruling coalition won each one of them. This is the first time the NDA has beaten the ruling coalition in by-elections.
Sunita Devi of the AJSU had lost to Mamta Devi of Congress in this seat in 2019.
Mamta Devi's election was nullified after she was given a seven-year prison sentence in a criminal case by the Hazaribagh district court on December 13, 2022, which is why the by-poll was held. The AJSU ran Chowdhary with assistance from the BJP, while the Congress ran Mahto, the ex-MLA Mamta Devi's husband.
Chowdhary is the wife of Giridih's current MP Chandraprakash Chowdhary and has served as an MLA from this seat numerous times.
The state's ruling coalition perceives the NDA's victory in the by-election as a setback. This assembly district includes the area where Chief Minister Hemant Soren was raised, and he has spoken at a number of events in support of Mamta Devi of the Congress.
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