Dehradun, 28 Feb 2008
Soldiers and defence personnel were instrumental in the victory of Lt-General TPS Rawat of BJP in Pauri Lok Sabha by-election. Lt-General Rawat defeated Congress candidate Mr Satpal Maharaj in a tough contest with a margin of 4,506 votes.
As forecasted by the BJP, victory came to the party in the Lok Sabha by-election of Pauri but not as presumed by the party leaders. The Congress candidate placed a stiff challenge to the BJP, which managed this win only with the help of the postal ballots which mostly consists of the defence personnels.
The Congress candidate superceded his BJP counterpart in the districts of Dehradun, Chamoli and Rudraprayag which comprises of respectively five, four and two Assembly seats out of a total 19 which fall in the Pauri Lok Sabha constituency. Eight are, however, covered by Pauri district. Mr Satpal Maharaj had a lead of 6,948 votes over Gen. Rawat in the three districts of Chamoli, Dehradun and Rudraprayag. In Pauri the two were close to the same support level with the Congress candidate trailing behind BJP with a little over 100 votes. But it was the postal ballot which elevated the BJP candidate’s support. Out of approximately 10,000 postal ballots received, most went to the General.
Postal ballot mostly comprise of the votes of soldiers and defence personnels posted across the country.
However, not satisfied with the polling process, the Congress candidate Mr Maharaj has demanded a CBI inquiry, raising questions over the postal ballots. Suspecting some bungling in the collection and counting of postal ballots, Mr Maharaj has also charged the BJP, for blatant misuse of government machinery. Congress president Mr Yashpal Arya has said the mandate of the people was clearly in favour of the Congress though the BJP finally designed victory for itself somehow.
News Source: http://www.thestatesman.net
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