BJP’s VK Singh beats SP’s Malti Yadav to be new ZP president in Prayagraj

Prayagraj: Dr VK Singh, candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be the new Zila Panchayat president in Prayagraj. Dr Singh defeated Samajwadi Party’s Malti Yadav by a margin of 18 votes to bag the post, polling and counting for which was held on Saturday. Dr Singh bagged 51 votes while Malti Yadav could secure just 33 votes in her favour, losing the political contest. Yadav and Dr Singh were in direct contest with each other as these were the only two candidates in the fray.
ADM (Nazul) Ganga Ram Gupta confirmed Dr VK Singh's victory in the election by a margin of 18 votes. Immediately after the declaration of the poll results, while the BJP supporters started bursting crackers, SP members levelled allegations against the BJP and the district administration of bias that led to SP workers raising slogans and entering into an altercation with the policemen at duty near Anand Hospital where they were gathered. The police had to use mild force to disperse the crowd.
The voting to elect the new Zila Panchayat president kick-started at Zila Panchayat Bhawan at 11am. Additional Commissioner (Food and Civil supplies) Anil Kumar as Observer, district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Khatri and DIG Sarvshreshth Tripathi remained present at the Zila Panchayat Bhawan the entire day to ensure smooth polling and counting process. Till 11.30am, just one out of the total 84 Zila panchayat members eligible to cast votes had voted.
At around noon, SP MLC Man Singh arrived at the voting site with 39 Zila Panchayat members and claimed that 10 more members were on their way to the Zila Panchayat Bhawan to cast vote in favour of the SP candidate. A little later, BJP leader Rekha Singh also arrived at the Bhawan with 12 Zila Panchayat members including five women.
Unable to get the news regarding the goings-on inside the Zila Panchayat Bhawan resulted in SP workers growing restless near the District collectorate where they had been stopped with the help of police the barricading. They tried to pressurise the police officials to allow BJP MLC Man Singh and the party’s district president Yogesh Chandra to enter the Zila Panchayat Bhawan premises.
They also claimed that BJP had fixed chips inside the masks of its members which was facilitating them to keep a tab of the proceedings taking place inside the Zila Panchayat Bhawan. Unable to get the police officials to yield to their demands, the SP party workers tried to pass the police barricading by force that led to the police using mild force to disperse and push them back.
District election office informed that till the voting deadline of 3pm, all 84 eligible voters had exercised their franchise. Soon after the counting process kick-started and within one-and-a-half hours, Dr VK Singh was declared the winner.