MANGALDAI, Dec 15 - Proving all speculation correct, the authority of Darrang Election District on Friday night declared the BJP candidate as winner against the post of member for the Dipila-Duni Zila Parishad constituency under Sipajhar LAC after a process of reported re-checking of ballots following allegations and counter allegations of anomalies in the counting process from both the rival BJP and Congress candidates on Thursday.
The authority declared BJP candidate Joyshree Deka winner by a narrow margin of 199 votes against her nearest rival Congress candidate Kanika Baisya.
Earlier, controversy marred transparency over the counting process under a section of officials for the post of Zila Parishad Member (ZPM) as the Congress (INC) candidate had staged protest hunger strike in the counting centre campus alleging sabotage against her by a section of counting officials so as to declare rival BJP candidate as the winner.
Kanika Baisya, the Congress candidate for the post of member in Dipila-Duni Zila Parishad constituency claimed that she had defeated her nearest rival, i.e., BJP candidate Joyshree Deka by a margin of 185 votes at the end of counting.
But the authority without declaring her winner, subsequently re-counted the ballots at the Sarabari LP School polling station, which helped the BJP candidate to win the seat by a margin of 55 votes.
Demanding justice, the Congress candidate filed a written complaint before the District Returning Officer on Thursday evening and since night staged protest hunger strike along with a couple of authorised counting agents.
Talking to this Correspondent, District Returning Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner of Darrang district Ashok Kumar Barman ruled out any lack of transparency in the entire counting process, thereby clarifying that there were no official declaration of the result as claimed by the Congress candidate. He admitted receiving a complaint from her and assured re-checking of the ballots of the particular polling station in the presence of agents of both the parties.
However, the authority stopped the re-checking process last night after anticipating some law and order situation and re-scheduled it for Friday afternoon. Although the process of re-checking began in the afternoon, it could not be completed till filing of this report in the evening reportedly due to non-cooperation of the counting agents of the Congress candidate. Around 100 supporters and leaders of the Congress party gathered outside the counting campus of Mangaldai College and shouted slogans in support of their party candidate and against the district administration on Friday.
Meanwhile, with this win of the Dipila-Duni ZP Member seat, the ruling BJP has bagged six seats in the 14-member Darrang Zila Parishad. The Opposition Congress has bagged five seats, followed by AIUDF with two seats and independent one.
Further, the BJP bagged 32 seats out of the 75 posts of AP Member, while 28 seats out of an equal number of seats for the post of GP President was also bagged by the saffron party. On the other hand, the Congress bagged 31 seats of GP President and an equal number of AP Member seats in the district. They were followed by AIUDF with 12 GP President seats and 9 AP Member seats respectively. Regional party AGP had to settle for three seats of GP President and only seat of AP Member.