Dehradun, Nov 23 (PTI) The BJP on Saturday retained the Kedarnath Assembly seat in Uttarakhand, with its candidate and state Mahila Morcha president Asha Nautiyal defeating Congress' Manoj Rawat by 5,622 votes.
Nautiyal took an early lead and maintained it till the end. This is her third victory from the seat. She was elected to the state Assembly from Kedarnath in 2002 and 2007.
Nautiyal polled 23,814 votes, Rawat got 18,192 and Independent candidate Tribhuvan Singh was in the third position with 9,311 votes, the Election Commission website showed.
Returning officer Anil Shukla handed the victory certificate to Nautiyal in Rudraprayag.
It is a significant victory for the ruling BJP as it would have been humiliating for the party to lose another pilgrimage seat in Uttarakhand after Badrinath.
This is the second time in a row that the Congress has lost the seat. In the 2022 Assembly polls, Rawat finished third after BJP's Shaila Rani Rawat and Independent candidate Kuldeep Singh Rawat.
The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of BJP MLA Shaila Rani Rawat in July. Polling was held on November 20 and a voter turnout of 57.64 per cent was recorded.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said this is a "huge victory" for the BJP and the triumph of the development work carried out in Kedarnath under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"It is a victory of development, our policies and Sanatan. It is also a slap on the faces of those who spread all sorts of lies against the state government in the run-up to the bypoll," he said without naming anyone.
Dhami said his government is committed to taking development to the last person in Kedarnath.
The chief minister also staged a roadshow from Survey Chawk to the state BJP headquarters and thanked the party workers for the win in Kedarnath.
Addressing the party workers, he gave the credit for the victory to Prime Minister Modi.
"I look upon it as a victory of Modi ji. After the 2013 disaster, development projects worth more than Rs 2,000 crore were begun in Kedarnath under our Prime Minister's leadership," he said.
The energy generated by this victory will be utilised to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Kedarnath, Dhami said.
Uttarakhand BJP president Mahendra Bhatt said, "The voters of Kedarnath have once again rejected the negative politics of the Congress. I thank them for once again placing their trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the BJP."
He said the negative propaganda of the Congress which tried to spread misinformation about Kedarnath Dham had no impact on people who have once again put their seal of approval on the work done in the constituency by the BJP government in the Centre and in the state.
Former Pradesh Congress President Ganesh Godiyal who had actively campaigned in favour of the party candidate in Kedarnath, said the Congress could not win the seat due to the division of the anti-establishment votes.
"Over 51,000 votes were cast in the bypoll. We could not win as we could not keep around 33,000 anti-establishment votes intact," Godiyal said.
However, he congratulated both Dhami and Nautiyal for the victory in Kedarnath and expressed hope that they will honour the trust reposed by the people in them by pacing up development in the constituency.