Kushinagar, Oct. 29 -- Independent candidate from Gorakhpur-Faizabad Graduates' constituency Rajiv Yadav on Thursday alleged irregularities in the final round of counting for the MLC elections, claiming that votes marked in his favour had been "changed", and said he would approach the Election Commission and the court seeking an examination of the 1,612 ballots.

"I have been completely cheated. In the first three rounds of counting, 42,000 votes were counted, and I was leading by 376 votes. In the fourth round, which had only 1,612 votes, Dhruv Kumar Tripathi received 970 votes. If those ballots are examined, it will be found that the number '1' marked in my favour was changed to '4', while the column next to his name, which was blank, w...