Ghaziabad: Continuing its winning spree in the Uttar Pradesh civic polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday won the Ghaziabad mayoral seat for the fourth time in a row defeating its Samajwadi Party opponent.
Teluram Kamboj won the seat by 9,583 votes by defeating his nearest rival Sudhan Rawat of SP. The polls were held July 4. The BJP has already won mayoral seats of Meerut, Aligarh and Agra.
The BJP has swept the state municipal corporation polls, winning 8 major corporations of the 12 that went to polls after the counting of votes was completed Saturday.
The party retained the seat to its fold for the fourth time consecutively. The Congress candidate Vijay Chaudhary and Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Shyamvir Chaudhary stood third and fourth in the fray.
The BJP snatched Muradnagar city panchayat from BSP and retained its Loni chairmanship for the second time.
"I could have won the seat by over a lakh votes but the bungling attempts...during counting by the ruling Samajwadi Party delayed the result announcement to 2.30 a.m. Sunday," said BJP`s winning candidate, Teluram Kamboj.
Kamboj praised District Magistrate Aparna Upadhyay for her "neutral" stand during the entire election process.
Earlier, counting for the municipal polls in Ghaziabad was marred by a string of protests from the BJP as well as other parties.
The BJP workers sat on vehement demonstration while the counting was on. According to the party, the counting for the first three rounds was done in absence of their representatives.
"In 43 percent polling of 17 lakh voters` Ghaziabad municipal corporation the BJP fetched 1,35,296 against all odds under SP ruled state," social activist Rajendra Tyagi said.
IANS
