Contests that left everyone on the edge

Vadodara/Rajkot: It may sound like a cliché that every vote counts, but two nail-biting contests in Gujarat's local body polls showed just how decisive a single ballot can be — with one Congress candidate winning by a vote and another losing by three.

In the Bharuch taluka panchayat, Congress candidate Mohsin Pathan clinched the Palej seat by just one vote. Pathan credited voters who turned out despite the intense heat for the razor-thin victory. "Those who think one vote does not make a difference should look at my example. One vote can bring you to power or take it away," he said.



In contrast, the Congress fell agonisingly short in Navsari Municipal Corporation's Ward 6, where candidate Piyush Dhimmar lost by just three votes. Dhimmar, a former corporator when Navsari was a municipality, broke down before the media after the result was declared but later composed himself. He said the close margin suggested there was no sweeping BJP wave and added that the outcome might have been different had a couple of postal ballots not been cancelled.

In Vanthali taluka panchayat in Junagadh, out of the 16 seats, 11 were won by BJP, while five went to AAP.

In the Dhandhusar seat, BJP candidate Bharat Chandela was declared the winner by a margin of just one vote. Chandela secured 1,564 votes, while AAP candidate Raju Devaraniya finished a close second with 1,563 votes.

However, one postal ballot vote was counted in Chandela's favour, giving him the decisive one-vote victory.
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