Wins Mandideep, Maihar, Isagarh
BHOPAL : The Congress has won Maihar and Mandideep Municipal committee and Isagarh Nagar panchayat polls, defeating ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The results were announced on Monday.
In Maihar, Congress candidate Dharmesh Ghai defeated Dheeraj Pandey of BJP by a margin of 4,035 votes. In Mandideep, Badri Singh Chouhan of Congress won, defeating Rajendra Agarwal of BJP by 5,311 votes. BJP rebel candidate Vipin Bhargava got 11,450 votes. Congress’ Bhupendra Narayan Dwivedi defeated Harivallabh Agarwal of BJP in Isagarh by 1268 votes.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had campaigned in all these areas and so had seven ministers and several MLAs.
Mandideep is in the constituency of culture minister Surendra Patwa. BJP had fielded Patwa’s choice as its candidate. Factionalism is being seen as the biggest reason behind BJP’s defeat in these polls. Revenue minister Rampal Singh was unhappy with the ticket distribution in Mandideep and his resentment contributed to the party’s defeat.
BJP’s Narayan Tripathi had won elections in assembly bye-polls in Maihar only five months back.
BJP state president Nandkumar Singh Chouhan says ‘local factors’ were responsible for the party’s defeat.
Meanwhile, the victory of Congress, coming after a long time, was celebrated at its party office. PCC chief Arun Yadav said the party would fulfill the aspirations of the people.
