Dhami wins Champawat bypoll with record margin

Dehradun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Friday won Champawat Assembly seat bypoll defeating Congress' Nirmala Gahtori by a record margin of over 55,000 votes to retain his office.

Bypoll to the Champawat Assembly seat was held on May 31, with over 64 per cent of the electorate casting their votes.

Dhami garnered 58,258 votes against Gahtori's 3,233 votes, winning by a record margin of 55,025 votes, election officials in Champawat said.

Gahtori lost her deposit, they said. Dhami had to contest the bypoll to become a member of the Assembly, a constitutional requirement he needed to fulfil to remain chief minister after losing from Khatima in the state polls held in February.

Though chief ministers of Uttarakhand who contested bypolls never lost, this is the highest margin with which a chief minister has won a by-election in the hill state.

Dhami has rewritten the record of Vijay Bahuguna who had won a bypoll from Sitarganj on a Congress ticket in 2012 by 40,000 votes.