Gaya, July 3: Neema Kumari and Sheetal Prasad Yadav were today elected the chairperson and vice-chairman, respectively, of Gaya district board.

Neema defeated her nearest rival Sudha Devi by a margin of four votes in the election held at the conference hall of Gaya collectorate.

The defeat of Sudha was a jolt to Hari Manjhi, the BJP MP from Gaya, because she is his daughter-in-law.

Neema bagged the support of 25 newly elected district board members. Sudha managed 21 votes.

Neema replaced Shobha Sinha. The post of Gaya district board chairperson is reserved for women.

Like the contest for the top post, it was a neck-to-neck fight between Sheetal and Harendra Singh for the post of vice-chairman. Sheetal got 23 votes and won the fight by a margin of just one vote. Harendra polled 22 votes.

The vote of board member Photo Devi was declared invalid because she openly declared her support to Harendra during the voting process. Gaya district magistrate in-charge and deputy development commissioner Gopal Meena declared her vote invalid on the ground of breach of secrecy of the voting process.

Harendra, the contender for the post of vice-chairman, is a cousin of Congress leader Awadhesh Kumar Singh.

The elected vice-chairman, Sheetal, is a leader of the RJD. Earlier, his elder brother, Bindeshwari Prasad Yadav alias Bindi Yadav, was the Gaya district board chairman.