Barhait Assembly Election: Hemant Soren eyes third consecutive term

The Barhait Assembly is among the high-profile seats from where Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren is eying a third consecutive term. Hemant Soren, the son of former chief minister and Rajya Sabha MP Shibu Soren, first secured a win from Barhait in 2014. He emerged victorious in 2019 as well. This year, he also looks forward to retaining the Chief Minister’s post.

Soren is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Gamaliyal Hembram, a local leader and a former para-teacher. Hembram is quite popular in the region for his work in organising several football tournaments, besides running a school from his home.

Hembram contested against Soren in the 2019 polls on an AJSU ticket, ending up with just 2,573 votes. However, this time with BJP’s backing, his poll campaign has got a new momentum.

Located in the Santhal Pargana region, Barhait is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. Santhals and Pahadias make up 71% of the electorate, apart from Muslims (10%), in the region.

Since its formation in 2000, Jharkhand has majorly served as a stronghold for the BJP. However, the saffron party witnessed a setback in the 2019 Assembly elections when it was defeated by the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance. While the JMM received 30 out of 81 seats, Congress got 16 and one went to the RJD.

The BJP contested the polls alone and ended up getting 25 seats. The remaining seats went to Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (P), AJSU, CPI(ML) and NCP among others.

Barhait Assembly: Polling date

Voting for the 2024 Assembly election in Jharkhand is taking place in two phases. While polling in 43 constituencies was held in the first phase on November 13, the remaining 38 seats, including Barhait, will vote in the second phase on November 20. The results will be out on November 23.

Barhait Assembly: Candidates List

A total of nine candidates are in the fray for the Barhait seat in 2024 polls.

2019 result

During the 2019 Jharkhand Assembly election, JMM’s Hemant Soren defeated then-BJP candidate Simon Malto by 25,740 votes.