Two ex-Speakers of Jharkhand Assembly win, present Speaker loses

RANCHI: Two former Speakers of Jharkhand Assembly, C P Singh and Alamgir Alam today won their respective constituencies defeating their rivals comfortably, while the present Speaker Shashank Sekhar Bhokta bit dust.

BJP's C P Singh retained the Ranchi seat once again, a constituency he has been representing since 1996.

He defeated JMM's Mahua Maji, a former chairperson of Jharkhand State Women's Commission, by 58,756 votes. Alam, who won the Pakur constituency in 2000 and 2005 as Congress candidate, lost the seat to JMM's Akil Akhtar in 2009.

"My priorities are to bring electricity to all the areas of my constituency and reviving a hospital," Alam said after he avenged his previous drubbing by Akhtar, defeating him by 18,066 votes.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Shashank Sekhar Bhokta lost from Sarath Assembly seat, finishing third after Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) and the BJP.

Bhokta, who contested on a JMM ticket, got only 43,013 votes. Randhir Kumar Singh of the JVM-P won the seat, beating BJP's Uday Shankar Singh by over 13,000 votes.

"Win or loss is a political procedure. I accept the defeat." Bhokta told.