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February 7, 2008
BJP Retains Chhattisgarh's Keshkal Assembly Seat

Raipur
Chhattisgarh's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thursday won the by-poll to the state assembly from Keshkal constituency by a margin of 21,886 votes.

BJP's Sevakram Netam defeated his nearest rival of the Congress Budhsan Markam in the by-election that was dubbed as a dress rehearsal for state's 90-member assembly due this year.

The by-election was necessitated after the death of BJP legislator Mahesh Baghel in a car accident in August last year. The seat is reserved for a Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidate.

Besides the state's ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress candidates, three independents were also in the fray, one of them was backed by the Shiv Sena.

Keshkal is a Maoist stronghold in Bastar district. The counting began at 8 a.m. at the district headquarters Jagdalpur. About 62 percent of 146,796 voters had exercised their franchise during the polling Monday.

Upbeat over the win, Chief Minister Raman Singh described the success at Keshkal "a victory of BJP government's development policies".

"The BJP has done a tremendous job since December 2003 when it came to power, to improve state's 20.08 million people's quality of life and Keshkal voters have just acknowledged it," Singh told reporters here.

Congress leaders said they "will comment on the issue only after going into details of the reasons" of the loss.

February 7, 2008 

IANS | Top