Cong wrests ward 7 from BJP; runner-up is BSP

The Congress emerged victorious as the results of the by-election of ward 7 were announced, consolidating its position as the single largest party in the Municipal Corporation (MC). The party's candidate Poonam Sharma defeated the BSP nominee by a margin of 571 votes. In what is a blow to the BJP, it emerged third despite the fact that the party had won this seat in the municipal elections. This is the fourth time that the Congress has won a by-election to the civic body.

The by-election to the ward comprising Maloya colony and village was held due to the death in an accident of BJP councillor Laxmi Devi. As many as 72.4 per cent votes were polled. A total of 10,742 votes were polled of which the Congress received 4,044 votes. BSP candidate Seema Yadav polled 3,473 votes and BJP candidate Bindu Rani got 3,089 votes. Independent candidate Sunita polled 136 votes and her security was forfeited.

During the municipal elections in December 2011, the BJP had polled 3,940 votes defeating Congress candidate Neeru Yadav who had received 2,655 votes. The BSP had then emerged third. With the win, the Congress will now have 12 councillors in the 36-member House. Among the 26 elected councillors, the BJP-SAD alliance has 11, the BSP two and one is an independent.

The BJP polled the highest votes among the three parties in the village even though its vote share in both the village and colony came down from last year. In the colony, it was the BSP that received the highest votes among the three even though it could not make much of a dent in the village. The Congress gained votes from the previous elections both in the colony and village, with the tally enough to make it victorious.

Issues like increase in the price of fuel and LPG as well as other essential commodities, corruption, etc that were raised by the BJP did not seem to work in the ward. The party had till the day before polling distributed pamphlets in the ward highlighting these issues. The factionalism within the party is being attributed by some for the defeat.

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