The chief ministerial candidate of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal alliance, Hemant Soren, is leading from both Dumka and Barhait assembly seats from his nearest rivals of the BJP by comfortable margins.

Soren is leading by over 3,000 votes from Dumka assembly seat. He secured 32,682 votes in Dumka against his nearest rival BJP candidate Lois Marandi who secured 29,494 votes.

JMM's executive president and former chief minister, Soren, is also leading by over 9,000 votes from the Barhait assembly seat.

He secured 26,862 votes and his rival BJP candidate Simon Malto secured 17,211 votes.

Earlier, Congress leader RPN Singh said that his party will back JMM working president Hemant Soren as the alliance's chief ministerial candidate. RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also echoed similar views.

"There is going to be a clean sweep for Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in this election. We have fought elections under leadership of Hemant Soren. He is going to be the Chief Minister," news agency ANI quoted Yadav as saying.

Meanwhile, the Opposition alliance led in 40 seats, as per trends on News18, with Congress leading in 23 seats, JMM in 12 and RJD in five. BJP led in 30 seats, AJSU in four constituencies and JVM in three.

Also, track CNBCTV18.com's blog for all the latest trends and results on Jharkhand assembly polls 2019.

First Published:Dec 23, 2019 12:09 PM IST