The Maoists have made their presence felt in Jharkhand, but a former Naxalite will now be seen in action in the Jharkhand assembly.
Paulus Surin, who became the first Maoist having come overground and successfully contested the assembly election, trounced the sitting BJP MLA Koche Munda with a handscome margin of 17,799 votes from the Torpa seat in Khunti district, about 60km from here, on Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket.
Kameshwar Baitha, the JMM MP from Palamau and a former Maoist, won the Lok Sabha polls in 2009 from behind bars and is still incarcerated.
Another former Maoist Kuldeep Ganju contested the assembly polls on AJSU ticket from the Simariya seat but lost in the hustings.
The Maoists had a presence in at least 18 of the 24 district of Jharkhand.
Disowning the former Maoists, who contested the assembly polls, CPI(Maoist) leader Kishanji said they had been expelled from the organisation some three-four years back.
