Bahanaga: BJD candidate Raghunath Majhi won the by-poll to Bijatala Zilla Parishad zone-32 in Mayurbhanj results of were declared Friday.
Vote counting was started amid tight security at 8 am. Polling was held Thursday with 77.96 per cent voting. As many as 17,761 voters had cast their votes in the by-poll. Of them, 576 votes were declared invalid.
Majhi trounced his nearest rival BJP’s Kutulu Hansda by a margin of 4,212 votes. Majhi polled 8875 votes while Hansda got 4663 votes.
Congress candidate Sudarshan Murmu got 166 votes and JMM’s Mina Soren got 2768 votes.
Mild tension had erupted in certain booths Thursday with BJP and JMM activists alleging that the booths were rigged.
BJP workers alleged that the ruling party agents had rigged booths at Banakati, Khandadhar and Karachakia. Polling was held in 82 booths across five panchayats of Bijatala, Mundathakura, Banakati, Raihari and Luhasila.
The seat had been lying vacant after the death of BJP-supported member Chhotray Murmu in January.
PNN