Capital loss for SP

SAMAJWADI PARTY?S overwhelming victory in zila panchayat chairmen?s polls in the State was marred by the drubbing its candidate received in the State capital at the hand of BSP nominee Chedana Gautam, who romped home with a comfortable victory margin of nine votes.

SAMAJWADI PARTY’S overwhelming victory in zila panchayat chairmen’s polls in the State was marred by the drubbing its candidate received in the State capital at the hand of BSP nominee Chedana Gautam, who romped home with a comfortable victory margin of nine votes.

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Of the total 27 votes, the BSP contender got 17 against the nine votes polled by SP’s Pushpa Ra-wat in the fray. One vote was declared invalid during the counting of votes that was completed by the officials in just three minutes.

By 2.15 pm all the 27 voters had exercised their franchise and though the outcome was clear by 3 pm, election observer TP Pathak, returning officer RN Tripathi and assistant returning officer Vinod Rai declared the result much later only after getting the nod of the State Election Commission.

This was the second political blow to the ruling party in the city after an equally poor perform-ance by its presidential candidate during the Lucknow Univer-
sity Students’ Union election last year.

Sure enough, BSP MLA from Sarojini Nagar Irshad Khan, who masterminded the party’s win, made no bones of the fact that his party’s candidate triumphed with the support of at least three SP members.

“We were confident of bagging 14 votes but ultimately managed to garner 17,” he said. Gautam, 33, is a schoolteacher by profession. BSP activists/supporters later took out a victory procession in Hazratganj that was led by party district chief Mahadeen Gautam.