Ajeet Sharma, a three-time Congress MLA and father of actresses Neha Sharma and Aisha Sharma, faced defeat at the hands of BJP’s Rohit Pandey in the Bhagalpur constituency.
According to the Election Commission’s website, after the completion of the final round of counting, BJP candidate Rohit Pandey secured 1,00,770 votes, while Congress’ Ajeet Sharma received 87,296 votes. Rohit Pandey won the seat with a margin of 13,474 votes.
Jan Suraj Party’s candidate Abhay Kant Jha, backed by Prashant Kishor, finished a distant third with just 3,251 votes.
Earlier in the day, a close contest was observed between the Congress and BJP candidates. Sharma was trailing Rohit Pandey by 653 votes after 14 rounds of counting. However, he briefly gained a lead of 4,217 votes after the completion of round 16.
Ajeet Sharma’s daughter and actress Neha Sharma had campaigned in Bhagalpur, seeking votes for her father. She was also seen accompanying him during his roadshow on November 9.
In the last election, Ajeet Sharma had defeated BJP’s Rohit Pandey by a narrow margin of just 1,113 votes.
In the 2015 elections, Sharma won by 10,656 votes, defeating BJP’s Arjit Shashwat Choubey.
