Jharkhand BJP chief Babulal Marandi was leading by 1,840 votes over CPIML's Rajkumar Yadav in Dhanwar assembly seat after the first round of counting of votes, according to the Election Commission of India.

Marandi won the Dhanwar seat in the 2019 assembly polls as a Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) candidate by defeating BJP's Lakshman Prasad Singh by a margin of 17,550 votes. Later, he joined the BJP.