BJP roars in Bandhavgarh, gets 55% votes

BHOPAL: The BJP retained Bandhavgarh assembly seat by a massive margin of over 25,476 votes.

In 2013, BJP had won the tribal-dominated seat by 18,654 votes but this time Shivnarayan Singh improved the victory margin by over 35%. Congress’ Savitri Singh could poll only 48,880 votes to Singh’s 74,356 (54.95%). Some 2.36% voters opted for ‘NOTA’ (None of the Above). The by-election was necessitated due to the resignation of sitting BJP MLA Gyan Singh, who was elected to Lok Sabha in November from Shahdol.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh had camped at Bandhavgarh for a day and addressed two election rallies in support of Savitri, but that seems to have had no impact on the voters. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had campaigned intensively here, stressing on his development schemes, and this evidently clicked. The CM had toured Bandhavgarh extensively.

As the results for Bandhavgarh were declared early in the afternoon, after three hours of counting, chief minister Chouhan congratulated the workers saying it was the victory of the hard work by grassroots workers.
“I thank the people of Bandhavgarh for making Shivnarayan Singh victorious in the bypoll. This is the result of dedication and hard work by our workers. The victory of Bandhavgarh has given us new energy to keep the wheel of development moving in the state,” said Chouhan. BJP state chief Nandkumar Singh also congratulated party workers for the massive win in Bandhavgarh.