By IANS,
Ranchi : The election results day Saturday was a good day for Babulal Marandi, Shibu Soren, Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda – the four men who have at different times occupied the chief minister’s post since the formation of Jharkhand nine years ago.
The first chief minister of the state and president of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) Babulal Marandi won from the Koderma Lok Sabha constituency by over 44,000 votes defeating Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) candidate, Raj Kumar Yadav. Marandi has won the Lok Sabha elections from the same seat for the third time in a row. He was chief minister of the state from November 2000 to March 2003.
Contesting from Dumka, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren won the Lok Sabha election by a margin of over 19,000 votes defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Sunil Soren.
Shibu Soren also won the Jamatara assembly bye-election by over 17,000 votes. Soren won both the elections despite the fact that he did not campaign due to poor health. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha on six earlier occasions from Dumka. Soren was chief minister of the state from September 2008 to January 2009.
Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda succeeded in winning their first Lok Sabha elections. Munda, a BJP candidate, who was the chief minister from March 2003 to September 2006 won from the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat by over 100,000 votes. He defeated sitting JMM MP Suman Mahto.
Koda, who was the chief minister of the state from September 2006 to August 2008, fought the election as an independent candidate from Singhbhum and defeated sitting Congress MP Bagun Sumbrai by over 88,000 votes.
Koda had got his name registered in the Limca Book of Records for having remained as the chief minister for nearly two years despite being an independent legislator.