In Uttarakhand Panchayat Polls, Winner Says Opponent Got More Votes

A candidate of a panchayat poll who was given the certificate of victory by the election officer here has informed authorities that she got fewer votes, urging them to declare her rival as the real winner.

This story of honesty played out after the poll results were declared for the post of head of Tarkuli gram panchayat, which is a part of Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami's assembly constituency, Champawat.

Kajal Bisht secured 103 votes while her opponent Sumit Kumar got 106 votes but Bisht was declared winner.

"I told the election officer that I did not win the election, I lost. My opponent got three more votes than me, so the certificate should be given to the rightful winner," Bisht said.

When the matter was not resolved at the level of the Election Officer, Bisht filed a case in the court of Sub-Divisional Magistrate Anurag Arya.

The SDM accepted Bisht's objection and ordered the Election Officer to get the votes recounted within 30 days. Officials said that the date of recount is likely to be released soon.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)