Giridih (Jharkhand) [India], November 23 : Even as JMM-led Mahagathbandhan seems poised to retain power in Jharkhand as per trends posted by Election Commmission of India following counting of votes polled in the two-phased State Assembly election, it looks likely that party candidate and Chief Minister Hemant Soren's wife, Kalpana Soren might face an upset from the Gandey constituency.
"Counting is still underway. When we have waited so far, let's wait for a few more hours. I think it will be too early to say anything now. So, let's wait...Everyone has waited for 23rd November," Kalapana Soren told ANI.
Kalpana had contested against Bharatiya Janata Party's Muniya Devi, who was seen leading in Gandey constituency by 3060 votes in the 8th round of counting of votes out of a total of 21 rounds, as per the apex poll body.
Kalpana Soren who had won the bypolls held earlier this year and is the incumbent candidate from Gandey said that "People of Jharkhand have chosen the path to development, and somewhere women are winning this time."
"But still it is difficult to say anything (on results), first it should all finish," she told ANI.
Congress' Ghulam Ahmad Mir has also expressed restrain in putting out any definitive statements as there are 20 rounds of counting to happen for candidates, but did say that the margin for Congress will increase as the counting progresses.
"These are early trends, we have just entered the second or third rounds of counting, there are approximately 20 rounds of counting in total. In some places, we are leading and in others, we are trailing. We should wait till 2-3 PM, the number of seats and margin of votes for Congress will increase," Mir told ANI.
"In some areas, we will definitely do better in the fifth or sixth round of counting. Our JMM-led alliance has tried to perform better in these elections. We tried to reach out to people, especially women voters. People have responded to it in the polling and it is also visible now," he added.
As per the election Commission, JMM is leading in 30 seats, while the alliance partners Congress, Rashtriya Janata Da and Communist party of India (Marxist-Leninist) are leading in 14, 4 and 2 seats respectively; totaling to the alliance leading in 50 seats.
The opposition alliance, BJP is leading in 27 seats, while its alliance partners, AJSU party, Lok Janshakti party (Ram Vilas) and Janata Dal (United) are leading in one seat each.