LAW KUMAR MISHRA
PATNA: Ms Baby Devi,excise and prohibition minister of Jharkhand on Friday defeated Ms Yashda Devi of NDA by 17156 votes and JMM retained Dumri assembly constituency of neighbouring Giridih district.
The AIMIM candidate,Abdul Momin Rizvi with 3471 votes lost his security deposit.NOTA with 3600 got more votes than Rizvi.
By-election was caused due to the death of the education minister,Jagannath Mahto who represented Dumri for the last 20 years.JMM supported by INDIA partners Congress ,JDU and RJD had fielded Ms Baby Devi.
Three former chief ministers,Babu Lal Marandi,Arjun Munda and Raghuwar Das had actively campaigned for the NDA nominee,Yashoda Devi who was fielded by All Jharkhand Students Union.In the first 13 rounds of counting,the NDA candidate was leading with sizable margin,but her margin started receding after 14 th round of counting and ultimately JMM was declared elected.
The AIMIM president,Osaiuddin Owasi had addressed election meetings in support of AIMIM candidate,but Muslims preferred the JMM candidate.They recalled the development works done by Jagannath Mahto in the last 20 years .Jagannath Mahto was known as Tiger of Dumri .