By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 2 Jan: While voting for the Uttarakhand municipal elections scheduled for 23 January, with results to be declared on 25 January, the BJP has already clinched two unopposed victories. Prem Singh Toorna, the BJP candidate for the post of President of Nanakmatta Nagar Panchayat in Udham Singh Nagar district, and Mamta Devi, the BJP candidate for the President of Devprayag Municipality, have both been elected unopposed.
Actually in respect of these two seats, nomination papers of the Congress candidates were rejected yesterday during the scrutiny.
In Nanakmatta, Prem Singh Toorna faced Congress candidate Sukhwinder Singh Khinda and independent candidate Vijay Kumar. During scrutiny, Toorna raised objections to Khinda’s nomination, citing allegations of constructing a house on irrigation department land. Following an investigation by the Election Commission, the Returning Officer rejected Khinda’s nomination.
With Khinda disqualified, only Vijay Kumar remained in the fray apart from Toorna. However, today, Kumar withdrew his nomination in support of Toorna, securing an unopposed victory for the BJP candidate.
Following his win, Prem Singh Tourna visited Nanakmatta Gurudwara to bow down and seek Waheguru’s blessings. BJP workers celebrated the unopposed victory with drums, marking it as the first such win in the ongoing Uttarakhand civic elections. In addition, one Ward Member in Vikas Nagar Municipal Council, also got elected unopposed. She is also a BJP leader.
In addition, it is learnt that BJP has managed to convince majority of its rebel candidates to withdraw nominations including Raj Kumar Kakkar from Race Course North and Ganesh Rawat from Rampur.
