The Bharatiya Janata Party today retained the Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat with its candidate Anurag Thakur winning the byelection with a record margin of nearly 1.75 lakh votes.
Thakur, son of Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, humbled his Congress rival and former minister O P Rattan by a margin of 1,74,666 votes in the bypoll, in which a total of 5,85,433 votes were polled, Hamirpur deputy commissioner and returning officer Nandita Gupta told UNI.
Gupta said the BJP candidate polled 3,74,339 votes as against 1,99,673 votes received by Rattan.
The BJP led in all the 17 assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency, and this was the highest ever victory margin for this seat.
Thakur's lead from all the five assembly constituencies in Hamirpur district alone was over 80,000 votes.
The BJP leader maintained his lead over the Congress candidate in the postal votes too by getting 1,178 more votes than those received by his rival.
Bahujan Shakti Party candidate P C Kaundal and an independent Amin Chand forfeited their deposit, having polled 4,937 and 6,484 votes respectively.
The bypoll was held after Dhumal resigned from the Lok Sabha on becoming the chief minister following the assembly election last year.
Talking to newspersons, Thakur thanked the voters for handing over an overwhelming victory to the BJP and promised to do his best for the people of the constituency.
''I am speechless. I thank the people for their whole-hearted support for the BJP. I will do anything within my means for the development of the constituency,'' he said.