BJP bags Rishikesh mayor seat, Congress ahead in Haldwani

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has bagged the prestigious mayoral seat of Rishikesh, officials said on Tuesday.

For the post of Haldwani's mayor, Congress candidate Sumit Hridyesh was ahead of his BJP rival Jogendra Pal Singh Rautela by over 5,000 votes.

BJP's Anita Mangai, who got 26,403 votes, won the elections by a margin of 11,168 votes, defeating her nearest independent rival Veena Deep Sharma who got 15,235 votes.

Congress' Laxmi Sajwan stood third with 12,057 votes.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s candidate Manju Sharma fared badly and could get only 317 votes.

As many as 306 people used the Nota option, a poll panel official informed IANS. This was the first result for the 84 urban local body elections, counting for which began at 8 am.

In neighbouring Haridwar too, the BJP mayoral candidate Anu Kakkar was ahead of her Congress rival Anita Sharma with 809 votes. After completion of the fourth round of counting BJP candidate had got 23,674 votes while Congress candidate has got 22865 votes.

In the prestigious battle for the chair of the mayor of Dehradun, the state capital of Uttarakhand, BJP's Sunil Uniyal Gama was ahead of his nearest rival, Congress's Dinesh Agarwal by 9821 votes after the completion of counting of votes for the fifth round.

--IANS

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