BJP steals march over Cong in Uttarakhand civic body polls

Dehradun, May 1: Stealing a march over the ruling

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, yesterday bagged three of the six municipal corporations while Congress lost in four seats, whose results have been declared so far.

Polling was held to six municipal corporations, 28 municipal boards and 38 nagar panchayats on April 28.

In a set back, the Congress also lost Haridwar municipal corporation seat, which is the Lok Sabha constituency of Union Minister Harish Rawat. Rawat had done door-to-door campaigning in the area to canvass support for the Congress nominee Rishiswarananad.

However, BJP's Manoj Garg defeated Rishiswarananad by 17,147 votes to capture Haridwar mayoral seat. Garg garnered 48,950 votes whereas Rishiswaranad got 31,803 votes.

Of a total of 30 wards in Haridwar Municipal Corporation, BJP won 19, Congress six and Independents five.

Results of Kashipur and Udhamsingh Nagar municipal corporations are still awaited, state election officials said here.

BJP's repeat candidate for mayor's seat in Dehradun municipal corporation Vinod Chamoli defeated his nearest rival Suryakant Dhasmana of Congress by over 22,000 votes to retain his office in the corporation for a second consecutive term. BSP's Rajni Rawat, a transgender, finished third.

Of a total of 60 wards in Dehradun municipal corporation 34 went to BJP, 22 to Congress and two each to Independents and the BSP, the officials said.

BJP also won the Haldwani Municipal Corporation with its candidate Jogendra Rautela defeating Samajwadi Party's Abdul M Siddiqui by 1,409 votes even as Congress finished third.

The Roorkee Municipal Corporation went to Independent candidate Yashpal Rana who defeated his nearest rival Mahendra Arora of the BJP by a narrow margin of over 110 votes.

Rana got 15,763 votes, Arora 15,653 votes and Congress nominee Ram Agrawal finished third with 9,740 votes. Of the 20 wards in Roorkee, 10 went to Independents and five each to BJP and Congress.

About 70 per cent of voters exercised their franchise as civic body elections were held across Uttarakhand peacefully on April 28.

PTI