Victorious NDA candidate of Kosi teachers’ constituency Sanjiv Kumar Singh (garlanded) in Purnea on Wednesday. Picture by Mohan Mahato

Gaya/Purnea, April 13: The only man to sport a Gandhi topi in the Bihar Legislative Council has been shown the door.

In a jolt, the six-time winner of the Gaya teachers’ constituency, Arun Kumar of Congress, lost to Independent candidate Sanjeev Shyam Singh. A member of the Janata Dal (United) state council, Singh, was suspended by chief minister Nitish Kumar. He had contested the Gaya teachers’ constituency on a JD (U) ticket last time but had lost to Arun Kumar. Kumar was the seniormost member of the Upper House, where he has been member for the past 36 years. He had also been made the acting chairman of the House twice in the past.

Altogether six candidates had contested the Gaya teachers’ constituency elections for 11,687 votes, out of which a total of 8,280 votes were polled and 319 votes polled were rejected.

According to the first preferential vote counting, 4,140 votes were required for a candidate to win the election. However, none, including Sanjeev Shyam Singh, could bag the requisite number of votes. In the first preference counting, Singh bagged 3,644 votes followed by Arun Kumar (Congress) - 2855, D.N. Sinha (Lok Janshakti Party) - 108, apart from Independents Arun Kumar - 81, Dharmraj Singh - 1091 and Bhupendra Nath Singh - 801.

However, in the second preference counting of votes, Sanjeev bagged 3,882 votes to win the election. On the other hand, counting for the Saran and Gaya graduate constituencies were in progress on at the time of filing of this report.

Altogether 13 candidates, including sitting MLC Awdhesh Narayan Singh of Bharatiya Janata Party, contested from the graduate constituency that has 82,600 voters. Nearly 49.39 per cent voters under the graduate constituency had cast their franchise. Other contestants included Balram Mishra of Rashtriya Jana Dal apart from Amrendra Kumar, Ashok Kumar Singh, Akshay Kumar, Kamta Prasad Singh, Dhananjay Kumar, Nawal Kishore, Madheshwar Singh, Manoj Kumar, Rang Bahadur Singh and Sachin Kumar Singh (all Independents).

In Purnea, NDA-backed candidate of Kosi teachers’ constituency of the Bihar Legislative Council, Sanjiv Kumar Singh has registered an emphatic win over RJD candidate Yogendra Mahato. Verma emphatically won by a difference of 5,582 votes over his nearest rival, RJD candidate Mahato.

For Kosi teachers’ constituency of Bihar Legislative Council, 10,770 voters of 14 districts under four divisions of Purnea, Bhagalpur, Kosi and Munger cast their franchise out of 13,343 voters on April 10. Of the total number of votes polled, only 10,308 votes were reckoned as valid, while the remaining 442 votes were declared invalid. Only three candidates were in the fray.

Sanjiv Kumar Singh, a lecturer of English in Mokama College, said: “The whole credit of my win goes to the voters of Kosi teachers’ constituency. Not only did the voters made me win the election but they also cast the maximum number of votes for the Kosi seat compared to the sum total of votes polled for election on all the other seats.”