THE CONGRESS candidate won the prestigious mayoral election of the city after a gap of two decades by defeating the ruling SP nominee.
The Congress candidate Chaudhry Jitendra Nath Singh, who was locked in a neck- and-neck contest with SP’s Vinod Chandra Dubey, won the election by a margin of 3,695 votes.
While Chaudhry secured 77482 votes, Dubey got 75787. BJP candidate Vijay Kumar Mishra finished third with 55,246 votes. BSP-supported candidate Kumar Narayan secured the fourth place with 43469 votes and UDF candidate Rajiv Agarwal got 28,985 votes.
The SP failed to retain the mayoral seat for the second time. Party candidate Dr KP Srivastava was elected Mayor in 2000.
The counting of votes was very slow. As a result, the first round was completed in eight hours. In first round, BSP-supported candidate Kumar Narayan was leading while Congress candidate led in second round. SP candidate improved his position when counting of the City West ballot papers started in third round.
Congress candidate continued its lead with 3000 votes against the SP candidate. After the final round, excepting Congress candidate, others were asked to leave the pandal. Before leaving the counting place, SP candidate met Chaudhry Jitendra Nath Singh and congratulated him as new mayor. The official result was declared around 2 pm.
Following the election result, hundreds of Congerss workers took out a victory procession from Mundera. The rally, passing through Dhoomanganj, Sulem Sarai, Civil Lines and Chowk, finally terminated at Singh’s residence. The party workers celebrated the victory bursting firecrackers and shouting slogans. Senior party leader like Ashok Kumar Bajpai, Ram Chandra Srivatasva, Abhay Awasthi also joined the procession.
{{/usCountry}}Following the election result, hundreds of Congerss workers took out a victory procession from Mundera. The rally, passing through Dhoomanganj, Sulem Sarai, Civil Lines and Chowk, finally terminated at Singh’s residence. The party workers celebrated the victory bursting firecrackers and shouting slogans. Senior party leader like Ashok Kumar Bajpai, Ram Chandra Srivatasva, Abhay Awasthi also joined the procession.
{{/usCountry}}However, without waiting for the official results, the Congress workers started congratulating each other at Mundera. Abhay Awasthi, senior Congress leader, said the victory had proved the popular notion wrong that the party in the state was a ‘sinking ship’. Undoubtedly after a long time, the party had revived its base in the city, Awasthi added.