An exemplary act of rare honesty has emerged from the Champawat district of Uttarakhand during the Panchayat elections. In the Tarikuli Gram Panchayat election for the post of Pradhan (village head), candidate Kajal Bisht was mistakenly declared the winner and even issued a certificate of victory. However, upon carefully reviewing the vote count data, Kajal discovered that she had received 103 votes, while her opponent, Sumit Kumar, had garnered 106 votes. Despite this slight difference, she was declared the winner.
Without delay, Kajal Bisht informed the election officials of this error and requested that Sumit Kumar be declared the true winner. This incident, occurring in Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami's constituency of Champawat, has set a new benchmark for democratic values and personal integrity.
Case Reaches SDM Court
When the election officials failed to provide a clear resolution to Kajal's objection, she filed a case in the court of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Anurag Arya. In court, Kajal clearly stated that she had lost and that her opponent had received three more votes; therefore, the certificate should be awarded to him.
Administration Orders Recount
Recognizing Kajal Bisht's honesty, SDM Anurag Arya took the matter seriously and ordered the election officer to conduct a recount within 30 days. The administration stated that the new date for the recount will be announced soon. It is worth noting that the Uttarakhand State Election Commission held the three-tier Panchayat elections in two phases on July 24th and 28th, during which this case came to light.
