Deoghar Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha Elections: Suresh Bhardwaj, Sanjay Mishra, and Arunanand Jha Re-elected; Nirmal Jha Defeats Kartik Nath Thakur To Become Secretary

Deoghar, Jharkhand: Dr. Suresh Bhardwaj, Sanjay Mishra, and Arunanand Jha have been re-elected to the posts of President, Vice President, and Minister, respectively, in the general elections of the Deoghar Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha 2024. Meanwhile, Kartik Nath Thakur lost his seat as Secretary to Nirmal Jha “Mantu”. Chandrashekhar Khaware and Triloki Pandey also joins the Sabha as newly elected Vice Presidents.

Close Contest for President

The election for the post of Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha President was a close contest between Prof. (Dr.) Suresh Bhardwaj and Vinod Dutt Dwary. The two candidates were neck-and-neck in every round of voting. In the end, Dr. Bhardwaj defeated Mr. Dwary by 128 votes to become the President of the Sabha for his third consecutive term.

Mantu Wins by Landslide

Nirmal Jha “Mantu” won the election for the Secretary of Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha by a landslide, defeating Kartik Nath Thakur by 561 votes. Mr. Jha led Mr. Thakur in every round of voting, and the gap between the two candidates only widened as the counting went on.

Arunanand Wins for Second Consecutive Time

Arunanand Jha won the election for Minister by a large margin, defeating his nearest rival by over 1,000 votes, ensuring his seat at the Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha for the second consecutive time.

Sanjay re-elected as Vice President

Sanjay Mishra too secured a second term garnering 1262 votes, as one of the three Vice Presidents of the Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha. Sanjay was lead by Chandrashekhar Khaware who got maximum votes (1367) for the post, and followed by Triloki Pandey with 1241 votes in third place.

Election Results

President

Prof. (Dr.) Suresh Bhardwaj	985 votes
Vinod Dutt Dwary	857 votes
Mrityunjaya Pandit	517 votes
Ajay Narayan Mishra	423 votes
Rajdev Mishra (Rajesh)	271 votes

Secretary

Nirmal Kumar Jha (Mantu Jha)	1799 votes
Kartik Nath Thakur	1238 votes
Gangaram Mathpati	21 votes
Kanhaiya Khaware	21 votes

Vice President

Chandrashekhar Khaware	1367 votes
Sanjay Kumar Mishra	1262 votes
Triloki Nath Pandey	1241 votes
Kanhaiya Mishra (Prakash Shandilya)	1114 votes
Kundan Pandit	1011 votes
Uttam Shringari (Jhalku)	535 votes
Raj Kumar Mishra (Raju)	527 votes
Manoj Kumar Mishra	464 votes
Rajiv Kumar Jha (Raju Jha)	461 votes
Shivlal Pandey	258 votes
Ashish Kumar Jha	200 votes
Vijay Kumar Jha	84 votes

Minister

Arunanand Jha	1707 votes
Devendra Nath Purohitwar (Jaka Panda)	672 votes
Deepak Kumar Jha (Deepu Kunjilwar)	403 votes
Ramanand Jha	145 votes
Pankaj Kumar Jha (Pankaj Arewar)	93 votes

The Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha election was conducted peacefully and transparently on January 14, 2024 from 9 a.m to 6 p.m at Pandit Vinodanand Jha Girls Sanskrit School (Nehru Park), under the guidance of the Election Committee 2023-24 Chairman, Girija Shankar Falahari.

The turnout was over 70%, with 3079 out of 4212 Panda Dharmarakshini registered voters casting their ballots. The vote counting started at 7 p.m. and the election results were announced late night, around 1:30 a.m. on January 15.

All the newly elected and re-elected members will serve the Panda Dharmarakshini Sabha for the next 5 years, up until 2029.