Congress Retains Jharkhand’s Mandar Seat As Bandhu Tirkey’s Daughter Emerges Winner

Shilpi Neha Tirkey, the daughter of Bandhu Tirkey, got a total of 94,489 votes, while BJP's Gangotri Kujur received 71,202 votes.

Congress flag. (AFP)

New Delhi: Congress candidate Shilpi Neha Tirkey on Sunday defeated her nearest rival Gangotri Kujur of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by over 23,000 votes in the by-election to the Mandar assembly seat in Jharkhand’s Ranchi district.

Shilpi Neha Tirkey, the daughter of Bandhu Tirkey, got a total of 94,489 votes, while BJP's Gangotri Kujur received 71,202 votes.

A total of 14 candidates were in the fray in the Mandar assembly by-election.

The battle was primarily among the three candidates, including Bandhu Tirkey’s daughter fielded by the Congress as the common candidate of the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition, former BJP legislator Gangotri Kujur and independent candidate Dev Kumar Dhan backed by Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

Over 61 percent of the total 3.5 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the election held earlier on June 23.

The by-election was necessitated after the disqualification of Bandhu Tirkey as an MLA in the wake of his conviction in a corruption case.

A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Jharkhand had earlier on March 28 sentenced Bandhu Tirkey to three years imprisonment.

The CBI, as per a PTI report, had filed the case against Tirkey, a three-term MLA and working president of the state Congress, in 2010 for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income during his first stint as a legislator between 2005 and 2009.