Bhopal/Ujjain
A prolonged commotion was witnessed after Bharatiya Janata Party mayoral candidate Mukesh Tatwal was declared victorious by 923 votes against Congress party’s Mahesh Parmar and the Congress workers started creating ruckus seeking a recounting.
After a while accepting the objection from the Congress leaders, collector Ashish Singh ordered re-totaling.
Soon after the BJP and BJYM leaders also started protesting; and demanded that win certificate be handed over to Tatwal and called the administrative officers biased.
The BJP has won 37 wards while the Congress could only win 17 wards but the victory margin for mayoral contest was quite close. Tatwal of BJP secured 1,34,240 votes while the Congress party’s Parmar garnered 1,33,317 votes.
Soon after the announcement of the win in favour of Tatwal, the Congress workers were angered and surrounded collector Ashish Singh, forcing administration tom deploy heavy police force.
The commotion continued till reports last came in.
A brawl inside counting centre in Bhopal
A mini fight was witnessed inside Old Jail, the counting centre in Bhopal in evening after BJP and Congress workers came to blows over result of ward no 29. Clothes (kurta) of senior BJP leader Rahul Kothari were torn in the brawl. The police soon after used the force to disperse the entangled political workers. Congress’ Devanshu Pandey had lost by 46 votes and raised an objection over postal ballots. Several workers of Congress party reportedly engaged in heated arguments with Kothari and poll officers.
