Team Herald
SANGUEM: BJP candidate Suresh Kepekar won the Zilla Panchayat elections from Rivona Constituency defeating rival Congress candidate Abhijit Dessai by 2,373 votes.
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While Kepekar polled 5,416 votes, Dessai secured 3,041 votes and Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar supported independent candidate Gajanan Raikar polled 2,481 votes.
When the counting begun for Rivona Constituency, Kepekar took the lead of 621 in the very first round after counting of votes of Uguem village. The lead was increased to 1,068 votes in the second round after the conclusion of counting of votes in the Bhati Village Panchayat.
Dessai, however managed to get a slender advantage of 62 votes in his home village while Raikar managed to get majority votes in the Village Panchayat of Rivona and Kurdi Wadem.
This, however, did not spoil the chances of Suresh Kepekar from making it to the top. After the completion of counting from all 28 booths, Kepekar was declared victorious by the Returning Officer for having polled 5,416 votes as against 3,041 votes polled by the nearest Congress candidate Dessai.
Incidentally, this is the fourth time in succession that the BJP has managed to win the Rivona seat without much hurdles.
Former MLA Sanguem Subhash Phaldessai, who rallied behind Kepekar, at all times claimed that he was sure of Kepekar winning the Zilla Parishad polls as all the party workers had worked hard for his victory.
Kepekar thanked the voters from Rivona Constituency for rallying behind him and supporting his candidature and getting him elected.
