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Rajasthan CM wins Sardarpura seat; Congress wrests Hauz Khas from BJP

The ruling Congress party in Delhi wrested the Hauz Khas seat held by the Bharatiya Janata Party and also won the Nangloi Jat seat to increase its strength to 53 in the 70-member assembly.

The BJP's tally has been reduced to 14 with the party losing the Hauz Khas seat, which was quit by former Delhi chief minister Sushma Swaraj to retain her South Delhi Lok Sabha seat.

Congress nominee Kiran Walia, who lost in Hauz Khas by a margin of over 2,000 votes to Swaraj in the November assembly elections, today won the bye-election against BJP's Harishankar Gautam by a margin of 3,626 votes. While Walia secured 19,800 of the 37,453 votes polled, Gautam bagged 16,174. Eleven other candidates in the fray forfeited their deposits.

The predominantly rural Nangloi Jat constituency also fell into the Congress' kitty with its candidate P C Kaushik defeating former transport minister and BJP nominee Devender Singh Shaukeen by a margin of 3,486 votes. Shaukeen had won the seat for the BJP in the 1993 polls.

While Kaushik bagged 29,898 votes, Shaukeen, who was leading in the earlier rounds, finally secured 27,412 votes. Samata Party's Parmeshwari Devi got only 1,139 votes. A total of 60,197 votes were polled in the constituency.

Election to the Nangloi Jat seat was postponed in November following the killing of Samata Party candidate Ved Singh, whose mother Parmeshwari got the party ticket this time.

Polling for the two seats was held on February 22. Electronic voting machines were used in both constituencies. A low voter turnout of 43 per cent in Nangloi Jat and 33 per cent in Hauz Khas marked the polls.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has been declared elected from Sardarpura defeating his nearest Bharatiya Janata Party rival Meghraj Lohia by a margin of 49,280 votes.

The ruling Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party shared the two assembly seats to which bye-elections were held in Madhya Pradesh.

Congress scored an impressive victory in Burhanpur assembly constituency in Khandwa district where its candidate Manjushri won the seat by a margin of more than 26,295 votes.

A report from Indore said she defeated her nearest independent rival Abdul Rab while the BJP was relegated to the third position.

However, the opposition BJP retained its Khallari seat where its candidate Paresh Bagbhera won the bye-election, defeating his nearest Congress rival Bhekram Sahu by a margin of 2,831 votes.

In Delhi, Congress candidate Kiran Walia has won the prestigious Hauz Khas seat defeating Hari Shanker Gautam of the BJP by 3,626.

The Congress has also won the Nangloi seat in Delhi, where its nominee P C Kaushik defeated his nearest BJP rival Devender Singh Shaukeen by 2,486 votes.

UNI

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