Conquering all odds that came in his way, Chief Minister and Congress candidate Vijay Bahuguna created a new history in the political chapter of Uttarakhand by wining the Sitarganj bypolls by a record margin of 39,954 votes.
Whereas Bahuguna received a total 53,766 votes, the BJP candidate had to be satisfied with only 13,812 votes. In all, a total 69,695 votes were polled in this by election as per the figures provided by the district election office suggest.
In a small constituency of less than one lakh voters i.e. only about 91,247 voters, including 48,800 male voters and 42,447 female voters, securing victory with a huge margin of nearly 40,000 votes is incredible, believe political pundits who had predicted a win for the Congress candidate here, but not with such a record margin.
Interestingly, even the Opposition BJP which was in direct fight with Congress had not expected its defeat with such a huge difference, though many a party leader had realised its poor winning prospects here.
The counting of votes could be completed in nine rounds. But the main Opposition BJP was nowhere in the fight from round one. After the counting of votes in the first round Prakash Pant of the BJP received 999 votes, while Bahuguna was far ahead from him getting 8,466 votes in this round.
Similarly, in the second round while the BJP candidate received 1,411 votes, Bahuguna’s margin slightly came down with 7,219 votes. In the third round whereas BJP’s Pant got only 1,209 votes, Bahuguna managed to get 5,971 votes, securing a total lead of 18,037 votes after this round. Interestingly, the wining margin continued to look up in subsequent rounds of counting for the Congress.
While in the fourth round Pant managed to get 2,036 votes, the Congress candidate got 6,243 votes followed by the BJP candidate getting 2,889 votes and Bahuguna getting 6,062 votes in the fifth round. Similarly, in the sixth round, the BJP candidate received 1,525 votes, the Congress candidate got 6,499 votes.
Thus, in the seventh round, too, the Congress candidate continued to maintain its lead, getting 6,091 votes against 1,563 votes received by BJP’s Pant followed by Bahuguna getting 6,168 votes and Pant getting only 1,313 votes in the eighth round.
Interestingly, in the last round of counting i.e. ninth round, the number of votes polled to any candidates also came down where Bahuguna got 1,047 votes and the BJP candidate received only 867 votes in the ninth round.
There were a total six candidates in the fray. Apart from the candidates of the BJP and the Congress who were in the contest included Diwan Singh Bisht of the Uttarakhand Parivartan Party (UPP) and three independent candidates including Ayodhya Prashad, Paramjeet and Sartaj Ali. While Bisht of UPP received 668 votes, Prashad, Paramjeet and Ali got 218, 438 and 793 votes respectively.
Src: Daily pioneer