Madhya Pradesh: Dead man wins sarpanch election, authorities seek solution

Authorities were left in a dilemma after a dead man won the sarpanch polls in a village in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar district.

Also, READ: ‘Trying to finish Shiv Sena’: Uddhav Thackeray dares BJP to hold mid-term polls in Maharashtra

Ravindra Thakur, one of the candidates for the sarpanch post in Kajera village in Deori tehsil, had died of a cardiac arrest on June 22, but his name continued to be on the ballot paper for the July 1 poll as the information was not relayed to authorities, an official said.

"If we are informed about a candidate's death up to 72 hours before the polls, then we print fresh ballot papers. In this case, we were informed when the polling party had left (the village)," Sagar Collector and District Returning Officer Deepak Arya told PTI.

"We have sought the opinion of the state election commission. The issue will be resolved before the official announcement of polls on July 14. Mostly by tomorrow. The counting had taken place on the day of voting itself," Arya said on Monday.

The village has 1,296 eligible voters, of which 1,043 exercised their franchise, local officials said.

Thakur polled 512 votes, while rivals Chandrabhan Ahirwar and Vinod Singh got 257 and 153 votes respectively, leaving the dead man a winner by a margin of 255 votes.