Arrah, May 14 (PTI) The ruling NDA in Bihar received a setback on Thursday when the opposition RJD wrested the Bhojpur-Buxar legislative council seat, in a by-poll necessitated by the resignation of JD(U) MLC Radha Charan Sah.
Sah’s son Kanhaiya lost to Sonu Kumar Rai of the RJD by 340 votes, officials said.
The total number of valid votes in the bypoll held on Tuesday was about 5,500. Members of local bodies in the districts of Bhojpur and Buxar had voted in the by-election, they said.
Sah gave up the seat upon his election to the assembly from Sandesh in November last year, when the NDA had stormed back to power, winning 202 seats in the 243-member assembly.
Rai is the son of Laldes Rai, a former MLC from Bhojpur-Buxar, and the son-in-law of Vijendra Kumar Yadav, a former MLA of Sandesh.
Altogether six candidates, including four Independents, had stood in the by-election and JD(U) rebel Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, who is said to have queered the pitch for Sah, polled around 636 votes.
Meanwhile, RJD working president Tejashwi Yadav expressed delight over the party’s victory in the by-election.
In a statement, Yadav, who is the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, claimed that “our success in the by-election, conducted through the ballot paper system, proves that we lost the Vidhan Sabha polls because of EVM manipulation”.
“We had secured a lead in at least 150 assembly seats when the postal ballot votes were counted. In the interest of democracy, it is essential that we revert to the system of ballot papers,” he said. PTI NAC SOM
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