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Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Rajnath Singh won the Haidergarh by-election by a landslide margin on Monday.
Though the counting was completed at about 1400 IST, a formal declaration was made only about two hours later since the Election Commission of India had directed the authorities not to announce the result without its express permission following complaints of violations of the model code of conduct.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Noor Mohammad told rediff.com, "Mr Rajnath Singh polled 70,231 votes, defeating his closest rival belonging to the Samajwadi Party by a margin of 40,364 votes."
The Samajwadi Party nominee polled 29,867 votes, followed by the Bahujan Samaj Party nominee, who got 28,650 votes. The Congress trailed far behind with just 1,640 votes.
"This was the biggest ever margin in Haidergarh assembly constituency," a senior BJP official claimed. The constituency lies just 50km from the state capital Lucknow.
The result was a devastating blow to the Congress, whose legislator Surendra Nath Awasthi had resigned the seat and offered it on a platter to Rajnath Singh.
The support of Awasthi, who had held this seat for three terms, came as a boon for the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, who cornered a large chunk of the votes that would otherwise have fallen in the Congress lap. Even a large number of Muslim Congress supporters openly lobbied for Singh.
What has come as a boost for the chief minister is that the votes of both the SP and the BSP put together would still have remained far behind his tally.
Even before the formal announcement came, Singh took off in a state plane to offer prayers at the Vindhyavasni temple in Chitrakoot district in southern Uttar Pradesh. Singh had visited the same temple shortly after assuming the chief minister's office five months ago.
He contested the by-election to fulfil the constitutional obligation of getting elected to one of the two Houses of the state legislature within a period of six months of assuming office.
Though a couple of BJP legislators had offered to give up their seats for the chief minister, he chose to contest the seat vacated by the Congress MLA.
EARLIER REPORT: 65% polling in Haidergarh amidst tight security
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