NEW YORK: India’s nominee to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Dalveer Bhandari was today re-elected to the last seat of the world court after Britain withdrew its candidate from the election.

Bhandari received 183-193 votes in the General Assembly and secured all the 15 votes in the Security Council after separate and simultaneous elections were held at the UN headquarters in New York.

The elections were held after United Kingdom, in a dramatic turn of events, withdrew out of the race for the Hague-based ICJ, thus paving the way for Bhandari’s re-election to the prestigious world court.

Bhandari and Britain’s Christopher Greenwood were locked in a neck-and-neck fight for re-election to the ICJ.

The permanent members of the Security Council,  the US, Russia, France and China,  were understood to have been throwing their weight behind Greenwood. Britainis the fifth permanent member of the Security Council.

In a dramatic turn of events, the British Permanent Representative to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, wrote identical letters to the presidents of the United Nations General Assembly and the Security Council, before the two chambers were scheduled to meet at 3 pm (local time) for the 12th round of voting.

Read out simultaneously by both the presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council, Rycroft said that its candidate Judge Christopher Greenwood had decided to withdraw from the election to the 15-membered ICJ. He along with Bhandari were seeking re-election for the nine-year term.

The Indian leadership is upbeat over the re-election of its nominee as the ICJ is  due to begin hearing of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s case who is in Pakistan custody after arrested in Balochistan for spying and terrorist activities.

In May, India approached the ICJ to save Kulbhushan Jadhav’s life after he was handed out death penalty in Pakistan on spying charges.

The ICJ has stayed Pakistan’s execution order, and is hearing the case.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi credited on Tuesday the efforts of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and foreign ministry officials for the re-election of Dalveer Bhandari to the International Court of Justice.