Less than seven months after it stormed back to power at the Centre with its highest tally in the Lok Sabha elections, the ruling BJP was swept out of power on Monday in Jharkhand by the coalition of JMM, Congress and RJD, led by their chief ministerial candidate and JMM chief Hemant Soren.
For the BJP, the defeat in Jharkhand is the loss of power in the fifth state in a year following the fall of its governments in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.