Ranchi, Mar 2 (IANS): The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) registered a victory in the by-election for Jharkhand's Ramgarh Assembly seat as the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) candidate Sunita Chowdhary defeated Congress candidate Bajrang Mahto by 21,970 votes with its support.

The Congress candidate was supported by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Left parties, but suffered a resounding defeat.

A total of five by-elections have been held in the state after the 2019 Assembly elections and all the previous by-elections were won by the ruling coalition of the state. This is the first by-polls when the ruling coalition has been defeated by the NDA.

In 2019, Congress' Mamta Devi had defeated Sunita Devi of the AJSU in this seat.

The Hazaribagh district court had sentenced Mamta Devi to seven years imprisonment in a criminal case on December 13, 2022 following which her election was revoked, which is why the by-poll was held.

The Congress fielded Mahto, husband of former MLA Mamta Devi, while the AJSU fielded Chowdhary with the BJP's support.

Chowdhary has been a MLA from this seat many times and is the wife of Giridih's sitting MP Chandraprakash Chowdhary.

The NDA's victory in the by-poll is seen as a setback for the state's ruling coalition. Chief Minister Hemant Soren's native village comes under this assembly constituency and he had addressed several meetings in favour of the Congress' Mamta Devi.