RANCHI: The JMM-Congress-RJD combine's Chief Ministerial candidate Hemant Soren on Monday won both the assembly seats he contested in the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly elections.
Soren defeated Jharkhand Welfare Minister Lois Marandi in Dumka seat, securing 80,589 votes against his BJP rival's 67,571 votes of the total counted 165,033 votes.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief, who was first elected to the state Assembly from Dumka in 2005, had lost the seat in the 2014 assembly poll.
Soren also retained the Barhait assembly seat, defeating BJP candidate Simon Malto by over 25,000 votes. Soren got 73,534 votes and Malto got 47,939 votes.
Soren first came to limelight in 2004 when his father and then Coal Minister Shibu Soren was facing an arrest warrant in a three-decade-old case. The elder Soren had to resign as minister but Hemant Soren fought the legal battle and ensured acquittal of his father.
Becoming Deputy Chief Minister in the Arjun Munda-led BJP government in 2010, he pulled it down in January 2013. He himself became Chief Minister on July 2013 and held power of the state till his party's defeat in the 2014 Assembly elections.