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Gorakhpur mayor election: Confusion prevails as SP's Kajal Nishad demands recount
According to the initial trends, BJP candidate Mangalesh Srivastav is leading against Samajwadi Party candidate Kajal Nishad.
BJP's Mangalesh Srivastav has defeated Samajwadi Party's Kajal Nishad by around 67,00 votes for the mayoral seat in Gorakhpur nagar nigam. Srivastava received 214,983 votes, while SP candidate and actress-politician Kajal Nishad secured 147,957 votes. After the announcement of the final results, Kajal Nishad created a ruckus, alleging electoral malpractice, and demanded a recount.
SP candidate Kajal Nishad claimed that the administration has inflated the vote count by adding 1.5 lakh votes more than the actual number of votes polled. The counting process has been halted, and the declaration of the election result is pending. The administration is trying to persuade and explain to Kajal Nishad, as well as the candidates from BSP, Congress, and AAP.
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The mayoral election in Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's home constituency was primarily between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP). Mangalesh Srivastav, an experienced member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), was chosen as the BJP candidate for the mayoral election. Originally hailing from Maharajganj district, he received his early education at Saraswati Shishu Mandir. He completed his MBBS and MD (Pathology) from Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Memorial Medical College in Kanpur. Presently, he serves as the Vice President of Saraswati Shishu Mandir and Saraswati Shiksha Samiti. Additionally, he has actively participated in various social initiatives associated with the Gorakhnath Temple.
Kajal Nishad, the mayoral candidate for the Samajwadi Party, is a professional actress. While she was born in Kutch, Gujarat, her family currently resides in Mumbai. Kajal was previously involved with the Congress party in Mumbai and was nominated as a candidate from the Gorakhpur Rural Assembly constituency during the 2012 assembly elections. Although she did not emerge victorious, she continued her involvement in politics. In 2021, Kajal met Abu Azmi, a Samajwadi Party legislator in Mumbai, who suggested she meets Akhilesh Yadav, the national president of the Samajwadi Party and former UP Chief Minister. Following their meeting, Kajal expressed her desire to join the Samajwadi Party.
