| Font Size |
While Neeraj polled 2,95,735 votes, his nearest rival Vinay Shankar Tiwari of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) got 1,64,450 votes, said District Election Officer and Ballia District Magistrate Mayur Maheswari.
The polling to elect the successor to Chandra Shekhar, an eight-time winner from Ballia, was held on December 29, 2007.
The ruling BSP had tried its best to secure a win and had most of its ministers, including Chief Minister Mayawati, campaigning for its candidate Vinay Shankar Tiwari. Tiwari is the son of former UP minister Hari Shankar Tiwari. Having lost the 2007 Assembly polls from Gorakhpur and Deoria districts respectively, the father-son duo was also banking on the Ballia by-poll to revive their political fortunes.
The result also gave a severe jolt to the Congress and the BJP. Congress candidate Rajiv Upadhayay, who polled 10,755 votes, and BJP’s Virendra Singh, who got 22,753 votes, are among the 12 candidates who lost their deposits. As many as 16 candidates were in the fray. The Ballia seat, once a Congress citadel, elected Chandra Shekhar in 1977, 1980, 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2004. The only time he lost was in 1984, to Jagannath Chowdhary of the Congress.
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|