BJP loses civic by-poll in Nagpur

Nagpur, May 28 (UNI) The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena alliance in the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) suffered a minor setback when its candidate lost the by-election from one of the wards today.

BJP rebel Deepak Marotrao Chaudhari won the by-poll from ward number 133 (New Subhedar) by a margin of 725 votes, according to official sources. Mr Chaudhari polled 2,062 votes against 1,773 polled by his nearest rival, Malati Madhukar Mamidwar of the BJP, the sources said.

Incidentally, the BJP had fielded Mr Chaudhari himself for the election in New Subhedar that was slated to be held on February 1 last along with the 135 other wards in the city. However, the election had to be countermanded after the death of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate Prakash Tiwari there.

When the by-polls were announced, the BJP denied a ticket to Mr Chaudhari and instead fielded Ms Mamidwar, who had been a member of the outgoing House.

The ward saw a turnout of 50 per cent when voting for the by-poll was held yesterday, official sources said. There were a total of 15 candidates in the fray for the by-election. Of these, Ramu Dadarao Ghadge of the Congress came in third with a tally of 1,081 votes.

The other candidates included Vasant Awari of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mahesh Kakde of the NCP and Sanjiv Sherkar of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

With today's result, the election process from all the 136 civic wards in the city has been completed. The party-wise strength in the general body of NMC now is - BJP 55, Shiv Sena 8, Congress 33, NCP 8, BSP 5, RJD 3, MNS 2, Independents 11 and others 11. Five more members are to be co-opted to the general body, which will take its strength to 141, but the process has not been initiated yet.

UNI