Congress Scrapes Through in Ater, BJP Wins Bandhavgarh

Bhopal: Congress managed to win the Ater Assembly seat in Bhind district on Thursday after a marathon counting session.

Congress' Hemant Katare defeated BJP’s Arvind Singh Bhadauria by 857 votes but an official announcement was awaited till reports last came in.

Meanwhile, BJP retained the Bandhavgarh seat as party candidate Shivnarayan Singh defeated Congress’ Savitri Singh by over 25,000 votes.

The counting in Ater saw high drama. Katare who had alleged misuse of government machinery before and during the polls and raised the issue of faulty EVMs, kept complaining to the presiding officer during counting.

Katare who had took slender lead initially, went behind in subsequent rounds but regained thin lead later.

Congress chief spokesperson KK Mishra attributed the victory to 'the party’s policies, network and hard work of workers.

The Ater constituency had hit the headlines as Election Commission (EC) officers posed for demo of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines used first time with EVMs in Madhya Pradesh.

However, a controversy ensued as VVPAT machines kept offering voting slip in favour of the BJP when multiple buttons were pressed on EVM.

The entire opposition had cornered BJP following this report.

A subsequent inquiry by EC found nothing objectionable but 19 government officers, including the collector and the SP, were transferred.

On Thursday, BJP state chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan said EC did not do justice to them in Bhind.

Political analysts said the win in Ater is a shot in the arm for the Congress ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections.

Shivnarayan Singh is the son of BJP MP Gyan Singh while Hemant Katare is son of late senior Congress leader Satyadev Katare.