Koraput: Independent candidate from Kotia Tikai Gemel who contested for the post of Zilla Parishad Member from Pottangi Zone 1 defeated all-party candidate Mamata Jani by a margin of 3,700 votes.
While BJD, BJP and Congress had jointly fielded Jani as their candidate, Gemel had contested as an independent candidate.
Tikai has polled 10,354 votes, while her rival all-party candidate Mamata Jani has polled 6,654 votes.
The aforementioned information was shared by Pottangi BDO.
Pottangi Zone 1 comprises of 7 panchayats-Kotia, Gangrajpur, Deo Pottangi, Nuagaon, Pottangi, Pukali, and Maliput. While the zone has 22,318 voters, 17,108 votes were polled.
Senior Congress leader and Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati in his reaction to the defeat of the all-party candidate has said,” We failed to campaign for our candidate in the manner we should have. Since we all remained busy with our own work we had to face defeat. We welcome the mandate given by the people.”
