Chhattisgarh bypolls: Congress wrests Vaishali Nagar from BJP
BS Reporter / Raipur Nov 10, 2009, 13:22 IST
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Chhattisgarh today received a major set-back when Congress wrested the Vaishali Nagar assembly seat from the party in a closely-contested by-polls.
The by-election in the constituency--a part of steel city Bhilai--was necessitated following the resignation of BJP's Saroj Pandey, who was elected to the Lok Sabha.
The polling in the Vaishali Nagar constituency was held on November 7 while the counting of votes took place today.
Sources said BJP's Jageshwar Sahu continued to maintain the lead till the 11th round of counting. But in the last five rounds, Congress' Bhajan Singh Nirankari trounced the BJP candidates and won the election by a margin of about 1650 votes.
The defeat of BJP candidate has come as a big jolt for the ruling BJP and the chief minister, Dr Raman Singh. For, Singh had announced during campaign trail that it was he and not Sahu contesting the election from Vaishali Nagar.
The BJP leaders said they would demand re-counting of votes as there were some technical problems with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).
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