E-Paper
BJP wins both assembly seats in Ch'garh
The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party in Chhattisgarh wins both the Assembly Seats of Khairagarh and Malkharoda, reports Ejaz Kaiser.
The ruling Bhartiya Janata Party in Chhattisgarh has won both the Assembly Seats of Khairagarh and Malkharoda, the by-polls of which were held on Saturday.
In both the constituencies, the BJP maintained its early lead in the counting, which began early on Tuesday and emerged winner after the last round of counting was over.
Komal Janghel of BJP defeated his nearest rival Padma Singh of the Congress Party by a margin of over 15000 votes from Khairagarh. The Khairagarh seat has always been known as a Congress stronghold.
Nirmal Sinha (BJP) after maintaining an early lead won the Malkharoda seat by a margin of over 21000 votes. Mohanmani Jatwar of Congress was placed at number two position in Raipur.
The returning officer of Malkharoda BL Tiwari told Hindustan Times that Congress and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) stood at second and third rank after the last result came in.
The Malkharoda and Khairagarh seats were earlier won by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress Party respectively in the 2003 elections. Malkharoda is in Janjgir-Champa district and Khairagarh is located in Rajnandgaon.
The election in Malkharoda was necessitated after the court disqualified BSP legislator Lalsai Khunte because he concealed the information regarding his conviction in a criminal case when he filed nomination papers in November 2003. The party has fielded Khunte again as the court later acquitted him.
In Khairagarh, the election followed Congress legislator Devrat Singh's election to the Lok Sabha from Rajnandgaon in April this year. Devrat’s wife Padma Singh was in the fray on Congress ticket pitted against Komal Janghel of BJP.
