By Mayukh Goswami (PNI)

Mangaldai : Proving all speculation correct the authority of Darrang election district on Friday night declared the BJP candidate as winner in the post of member for the Dipila-Duni Zila Parishad constituency under Sipajhar LAC after a process of reported re-checking of  ballots  following allegations and counter allegations of anomalies in the counting process from both the rival  BJP and Congress candidates on Thursday. The authority declared  BJP candidate Joyshree Deka winner by a narrow margin of 199 votes against her nearest rival Congress candidate Kanika Baisya.

Earlier controversy surrounds over the transparency over  the counting process under a section of officials  the said  post of Zila Parishad Member (ZPM) as the candidate of the Congress( INC) has staged protest hunger strike in the counting centre campus alleging sabotage against her by a section of  counting official to pave the way to declare rival BJP candidate winner . Kanika Baisya , the Congress candidate for the post of member in  Dipila-Duni Zila Parishad constituency has claimed that she has defeated her nearest BJP candidate Joyshree Deka by a margin of one hundred eighty five votes at the end of the counting . But the authority without declaring her winner, later carried out re-counting of the ballots of  the Sarabari LP School polling station and indulging some anomalies helped the BJP candidate to win the seat by a margin of fifty five votes . Demanding justice the Congress candidate in this connection  filed written complaint before the District Returning Officer on Thursday evening and since night staged protest hunger strike along with a couple of authorized counting agents. Talking to this reporter District Returning Officer cum Deputy Commissioner , Darrang Ashok Kr Barman ruled out any lack of transparency in the  entire counting process clarifying that there were no official declaration of the result as claimed by the Congress candidate . He admitted receiving of a complaint from her and assured re-checking of the ballots of the particular PS in presence of the agents of both the parties . However the authority stopped the re-checking process at  last night anticipating some law and order situation and re-scheduled it for Friday afternoon . Although the process of re-checking began in the afternoon it could not be completed till filing of this report in the evening reportedly due to non-cooperation of the counting agents of the Congress candidate . Around one hundred supporters and leaders of the Congress party gathered outside the counting campus of Mangaldai college and shouted slogan in support of their party candidate and against the district administration on Friday .

Meanwhile  with this win of the  Dipila-Duni ZP Member seat the ruling BJP has bagged the maximum of six seats in the fourteen member Darrang Zila Parishad. The main opposition Congress has bagged five seats , followed by AIUDF with two seats and independent one . In this situation the two elected members from AIUDF are going to play the ‘King Maker” role to touch the magic no eight to form the Zila Parishad. On the other hand  BJP  bagged  many seats in all other three posts of different Panchayat level . It bagged maximum 32 seats out of the 75 posts of AP(Member) while 28 seats out of the equal no seats for the post of GP (President ) has been bagged the saffron party . On the other hand Congress bagged maximum 31 seats of GP (P) and equal no of AP(M) seats of the district . They were followed by AIUDF with 12 GP(P) seats and 9 AP(M) seats respectively . The major regional party of the state AGP had to content with three seats of GP(P) and only single seat of AP (M) .