According to the exit poll, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress-RJD alliance is slated to get 35 seats in the 81-member house while the Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to get 32. The range for the JMM-led alliance is expected to be somewhere between 31 to 39 seats while the BJP is expected to get 28 to 36 seats.
The BJP will find it difficult to form the government and its estranged ally, All Jharkhand Students Union chief Sudesh Mahto and former Chief Minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha chief Babulal Marandi can emerge as kingmakers in a hung assembly.
While the JMM-Congress alliance will have less work to reach the majority mark, for the BJP, it is a tougher ask, according to the exit poll.
Smaller parties like the AJSU are tipped to get 3-7 seats and Marandi's JVM likely to get 1-4 seats, according to the -CVoter-ABP Exit Poll. In a hung assembly scenario, these parties' role will be key.
Mahto's AJSU, which had won 5 seats in the last Assembly polls, had exited the NDA just before the Assembly elections over seat-sharing. However, what may appear to be a reason for the BJP to cheer is Mahto, in spite of his bitter divorce from the BJP, had said he is not closed to do business with the saffron party in future.
( With inputs from IANS )