PM Modi retains Varanasi seat with 4.80 Lakh margin

Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday won the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat defeating his nearest rival Shalini Yadav of Samajwadi Party by a margin of nearly 4.80 lakh votes. Modi won the Varanasi seat by 4,79,505 votes, an Election Commission update on poll results said.

In the 2014 general elections, Modi had won by a margin of 3,71,784 votes against his nearest rival, Aam Admi party supremo Arvind Kejriwal.

While Prime Minister Modi got 6,74,664 votes, Shalini Yadav got 1,95,159 votes. Congress candidate Ajay Rai secured the third position, polling 1,52,548 votes. PM Modi's votes share stood at 63.62 per cent against Yadav's 18.4 per cent and Rai's 14.38 per cent.

There were 26 candidates in the fray from Varanasi, but a total of 4,037 electors voted for none and pressed the NOTA (non of the above) button on EVM.

Until 6 p.m., the BJP had won 26 seats and was leading in 278 of the 542 Lok Sabha seats that went to polls in seven phases, demolishing the combined opposition with the Congress Party stuck with seven victories and a lead in 43 seats, according to the trends.

(BJP) in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday retained all the four Lok Sabha seats in the state as its candidates won by a record huge margins, election officials said.

Hamirpur sitting MP Anurag Thakur, Kangra candidate Kishan Kapoor, Shimla candidate Suresh Kashyap and Mandi sitting MP Ram Swaroop Sharma won their seats by defeating their nearest Congress rivals.

The main contest in the state was between the Congress and the BJP.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur thanked all the voters for the landslide victory of the party.

He told reporters here that the victory confirms that people have expressed faith and confidence in the programmes and policies of his government.

For the former chief of the national cricket body, Anurag Thakur, this was the fourth consecutive victory. He won by 3.87 lakh votes against Congress legislator Ram Lal Thakur.

From Kangra, the largest Lok Sabha constituency in the state in terms of voters, the BJP had fielded Cabinet Minister Kishan Kapoor, 68, after dropping veteran leader Shanta Kumar, against two-time Congress legislator Pawan Kajal, 44.

Kapoor defeated Kajal by state's highest margin of more than 4.77 lakh votes.

In the Shimla (reserved) seat, it was an ex-serviceman versus an ex-serviceman. Retired Colonel Dhani Ram Shandil, 78, who was the Congress candidate, lost by over 3.27 lakh votes to BJP nominee and former Indian Air Force (IAF) officer Suresh Kashyap, 48.

Sitting BJP MP and the Chief Minister's confidante, Ram Swaroop Sharma, won the seat for a second term from Mandi. He was contesting against Congress greenhorn Ashray Sharma, who is the grandson of former Telecom Minister Sukh Ram.

Sharma retained the seat by a margin of more than 4.05 lakh votes.

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