Defeated candidates and their supporters take out a torchlight rally at Albert Ekka Chowk in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, March 30: The candidates who had lost in the just-concluded civic body polls took to the streets today and called a bandh in the city tomorrow to protest against “rigging”.

Such was the situation today that victorious mayor Rama Khalkho, deputy mayor Ajay Nath Sahdeo and ward commissioners postponed their rallies to Tuesday to avoid a possible confrontation.

Since morning, people in different parts of the city started hitting the roads to protest the district administration’s alleged role in favouring some of the winners. Those protesting comprised mainly the supporters of losing candidates who also floated an organisation, Ranchi Nagar Niham Bacho Samiti.

Protests marked all places with the most-affected areas being Argora Chowk, Hindpiri and Albert Ekka Chowk where losers from different wards assembled to stage demonstration. While a few burnt effigies of deputy commissioner Avinash Kumar and human resource development minister Bandhu Tirkey, others burnt the effigy of state election commission as well as chief minister Madhu Koda.

Residents of ward number 38 blocked the Birsa Munda Rajpath at Argora Chowk from 11am to 4pm demanding re-election. They alleged that one of the returning officers, Ravi Shanker Verma, of supporting the winner of their ward, Savita Kujur, on instructions of Tirkey. “Verma declared Pushpa Devi elected saying that she had defeated her nearest rival Meera Devi with a margin of 87 votes. But after a gap of two hours when Pushpa went to get certificate from him, she was told that Savita Kujur was declared elected having defeated her by 25 votes,” Nawal Kumar, a local resident, said. Pushpa Devi, participating in the agitation, also supported Nawal.

At Hindpiri, residents of wards 25, 26 and 27 burnt effigies of Tirkey and Khalkho and disrupted movement of traffic in front of Urdu Library for one hour from 1pm. They were alleging deputy commissioner of being a puppet to Tirkey. “The district administration behaved like a mute spectator while Khalkho’s supporters kept on casting bogus votes during election and some confidants of Tirkey manipulating votes at counting booths,” Bablu, a candidate from ward no. 25, said.

Pawan Jedia, who had contested election for the single post of deputy mayor, said that votes of wards 19 and 24 were not counted properly. “I didn’t get a single vote from the ward while I am a resident of the area and several people had voted in my favour,” he said.

Losers were so agitated after the declaration of result that they also decided to observe daylong Ranchi bandh tomorrow. Tribal leader Karma Oroan has constituted the Ranchi Nagar Nigam Bachao Samiti to start agitation against alleged rigging in the election.

The district administration, however, is ready to face the situation. The help of Rapid Armed Police and Jharkhand Armed Police is being taken to maintain peace in the sensitive areas, including Doranda, Hindpiri, Pundag and Argora during the bandh. Apart from this, district armed police will also be deputed in different parts of the city.

The Jharkhand State Diesel Auto Mahasangh has decided to stay off the roads tomorrow. “We support the cause of the bandh. There has been large-scale rigging,” said the sangh secretary, Dinesh Soni. Long-distances buses have also decided to stay off the roads in order to avoid trouble.