Deoghar, June 23: The “tiger” has achieved a roaring success.

Rajnarayan Khaware (42), alias Babloo Khaware, a Congress leader whose name evokes terror in the minds of the people here, has bagged the mayor’s hot seat in the Deoghar Municipal Corporation polls. Rajnarayan, who had fought the civic elections on the symbol of the big cat — a factor that had triggered a controversy — recorded a landslide victory, defeating Sunil Khaware by 23,752 votes.

Despite having criminal antecedents and being notorious for his muscle power, Rajnarayan managed to woo voters from all sections of the society, including the rural areas that were recently brought under the Deoghar Municipal Corporation. In fact, several people admitted today that they voted for the Congress leader out of fear.

That Rajnarayan’s reign of terror extends to the bureaucratic circle became evident when deputy commissioner of Deoghar Mastram Meena did not allow him to collect the winning certificate soon after counting of votes for the mayor’s post ended at Panchayat Prashikshan Sanastha, Dabargram.

“His supporters may create trouble, so we decided to hand him the winning certificate only after counting at all places got over,” Meena told reporters here.

However, many of Rajnarayan’s well-wishers and supporters blamed his rivals for maligning the Congress leader’s image. They also held the Deoghar district administration responsible for spreading rumours against Rajnarayan, who holds the image of Robin Hood among the downtrodden.

“During poll campaigning, he came to our village and was shocked to see that there was not a single source of drinking water. A new handpump was installed within a few hours, thanks to Rajnarayan,” said a resident of Rampur hamlet.

Not only at Rampur, Rajnarayan had also taken the initiative to provide drinking water at many other villages.

“We owe a lot to him. The transformer in our village got burnt and we had to suffer for more than 20 days. But it was replaced within hours of Rajnarayan’s visit here approach,” a resident of Kalyanpur said.

Rajnarayan, who had contested the last Lok Sabha polls from Godda on an Ajsu ticket, but could not win, said: “I don’t want to make tall claims. My work will speak for me.”

The drinking water crisis, law and order situation, sanitation, health and primary education in the town as well as rural areas top his development agenda.

“We have to make arrangements for pilgrims, who came to offer prayers at Lord Baidyanath,” he added.

New deputy mayor Sanjayanand Jha, a JVM activist and close aid of party chief Babulal Marandi, said he would fulfil the promises he made to the electorate. “We have to work hard for the development of this ancient city, which is known as the religious and cultural capital of Jharkhand,” he said.

The society of pandas (priests) welcomed the verdict.