BJP suffers defeat in PM's Varanasi

The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a humiliating defeat in Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency, where an independent candidate won in the Legislative Council election.

The independent candidate Annapurna Singh secured 4234 votes out of 4876 votes. SP's Umesh Kumar received 345 votes. The BJP candidate Sudama Kumar Patel was trailing behind these two with a mere 170 votes.

Annapurna Singh is the wife of mafia don Brijesh Singh who is in jail.

Counting for the 27 seats of Council seats is underway. BJP has already won 9 seats out of 36 that went to polls on April 9.

Brijesh Singh's family has maintained a monopoly on this seat since 1998. His brother Udaynath Singh alias Chulbul Singh had won this seat on BJP ticket in 1998 and again in 2004. Following Brijesh’s arrest in 2008, Chulbul spared this seat for Annapurna who had contested on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket and emerged victorious in 2010, although she was later expelled from the party on the charges of anti-party activities.