In a body blow to BJP, nursing its wounds since the Assembly by-election results were out late last month, the Congress has wrested the prestigious Pauri District Panchayat President's seat from it as the final phase of the three-tier Panchayati Raj election in the State has come to an end today.
The Congress candidate Deepti Rawat defeated her BJP rival Hemani Negi by six votes in the election for the post of the District Panchayat President. Rawat got 23 votes, while Negi could manage only 17. Notably, Deepti Rawat is the wife of Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat while Hemani Negi is the wife of former District Panchayat President Keshar Singh Negi.
In the election for the post of Vice-President, Suman Kotnala defeated Kutti Narendra Singh in a straight contest by 2 votes. While Kotnala got 21 votes 19 were cast for Singh.
Two votes were found invalid out of the 42 Zila panchayat elected members involving both the posts. The victory of Suman Kotnala is being assumed as the victory of Congress. The district BJP is being battered with questions as to why the party had not announced its candidate for the post of the Vice-President. Questions are also coming up as to why the party's
electoral fortunes keep dipping down to the nadir despite the saffron party having conjured up a magic feat in the lok Sabha election just over two months back.
The voting for the post of President and Vice- President started at 9 am as scheduled and all 42 votes were polled before 12 noon in the presence of Returning officer/ District Magistrate Chandra Sekhar Bhatt, SP Ajay Joshi, Sub District Magistrate Pl Shah, Additional District Magistrate BS Chalal, ARO Vikram Singh and the observer Sushil Kumar, Additional Secretary appointed by the Uttarakhand Election Commission to supervise the election.