Khandwa (Madhya Pradesh): Bharatiya Janata Party retained the Khandwa mayoral seat as BJP's Amrita Amar Yadav won the mayoral election by a margin of 19,765 votes. Yadav defeated her nearest rival Asha Mishra of the Congress.
Amrita Yadav got 51,916 votes and Congress candidate Asha Mishra got 32,153 votes. Owasiís party AIMIM candidate Kaneez B stood third with 9,601 votes. In the ward elections, BJP won 29, Congress 12, Independent 8 and AIMIM won one seat.
From early morning, there was an atmosphere of celebration in the BJP as the party maintained the lead from the very first round. The final result came around 1.30 pm. Counting of votes began at 9 am at Sundarbai Gupta School in the city.
Congress created a ruckus before counting of votes. Counting stopped for some time. The BJP was ahead even in the postal ballot. Out of 17, BJP got 9 votes, Congress 7 votes. One ballot was rejected.
AIMIM registers 1st victory in state
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen registered its first electoral victory in Madhya Pradesh in the urban body polls on Sunday with its woman candidate winning the corporator's post in Khandwa city.
The AIMIM candidate, Shakira Bilal, won the election from Ward No 14 of the Khandwa Municipal Corporation by defeating her nearest Congress rival Noorjahan Begum by a margin of 285 votes, an official said. Out of 50 wards in Khandwa, the AIMIM had fielded candidates in 10 wards, besides mayoral nominee Kaniz Fatima.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had addressed a public meeting in Khandwa to campaign for the party candidates. Owaisi had also held public meetings in the state capital Bhopal, industrial hub Indore and Jabalpur seeking votes in favour of his party nominees in the urban body polls.
