It was a history of sorts when the first-ever panchayat elections in the state witnessed 58% seats being bagged by women. Fifty per cent of the seats were reserved for women and 34,750 women candidates were declared successful.
The winner with the biggest margin was Rajlaxmi Devi who won from Bhagmara, defeating her nearest rival Mamta Sinha by 9,909 votes. Eighteen-year-old Jhony Oraon became one of the youngest mukhiyas of the country after winning the seat from Saher panchayat.
The polls were held last month on a non-party basis. Interestingly, relatives of political heavyweights failed to impress the voters. Among the losers were Geeta Devi, the daughter-in-law of CPI(Maoist) ex-zonal commander Kameshwar Baitha who had won the Lok Sabha elections from Palamau on JMM ticket last year. Bitha?s sister-in-law Kusmi lost from Bishrampur. Former minister and LJP leader Madhu Singh?s daughter Anapurna Devi, Congress leader Siraz Ahmad?s wife Hamida Bibi, BJP leader and former minister Sadhnu Bhagat?s sister-in-law Geeta Bhagat, former JMM MLA Basant Longa?s wife Meera, Congress?s leader and former accountant general Benjamin Lakra?s wife Jasnita lost elections.
In Maoist-infested Palaiha panchayat in Manika block of Palamau, Kaushalya Devi, the wife of a farmer, Ravindra Singh, became the mukhiya by defeating the wife of Sudharshanji, a sub-zonal commander of Jharkhand Prastuti Committee (JPC). However, in Chatra, Lohardaga and Palamau, 25 women candidates backed by the JPC, Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) and ex-CPI(Maoist) cadres were declared elected unopposed. Shobha Devi, the sister-in-law of CPI(Maoist) zonal commander Suresh Singh who is lodged in Daltongunj jail, also won the election.
Though the CPI(Maoist) and its breakaway factions, JPC and TPC, had given a boycott call, the turnout in the five-phase polls ranged between 68 and 70%.