RANCHI: The Congress on Sunday registered an unexpected win in the Kolebira bypolls as its candidate Naman Bixal Kongadi defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Basant Soreng and Jharkhand Party’s Menon Ekka. Ekkas husband Enosh had ruled from the seat from the last three terms.
Kongadi beat Soreng by 9,658 votes while Ekka came in fourth with 16,445 votes.
The newly-formed ‘Rashtriya Sengel Party’s’ Anil Kandulna, secured third place by securing 23,799 votes.
Kongadi, who was given the winning certificate by election officer after his win, secured a total of 40,343 votes, while BJP’s Basant Soreng got a total of 30,685 votes after 20 rounds of counting. As many as 118914 voters had exercised their franchise on December 20, out of which 3,694 voted for NOTA.
State Congress President Ajoy Kumar termed the victory as an indicative of the oppressive policies of the BJP. “The people of Kolebira have given a big message to the country... We will also visit those areas where we could not get votes to find out why those people are unhappy with us,” said Kumar. The results of Kolebira will decide the fate and direction of the state politics, he added.