Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, won a landslide victory in the critical by-polls held for the Champawat constituency seat on Friday. For Dhami to keep his CM’s position, he needed to win this election.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader defeated Congress candidate Nirmala Gahtori by a significant margin of over 55,000 votes.

PM Narendra Modi congratulated the Uttarakhand CM on his massive win. Modi thanked the voters for restoring faith in BJP. “Congratulations to Uttarakhand’s dynamic CM @pushkardhami for the record win from Champawat. I am confident he will work even harder for the progress of Uttarakhand. I thank the people of Champawat for placing their faith in BJP and laud our Karyakartas for their hard work,” Tweeted the PM.

Many other BJP leaders also congratulated Dhami on his record win. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma congratulated Dhami for winning a massive mandate from Champawat, Uttarakhand. He attributed Dhami’s landslide victory to the people’s unwavering faith in the BJP’s beliefs and policies, driven by PM Narendra Modi’s vision.

“Congratulations Shri @pushkardhami Ji on winning a massive mandate from Champawat, Uttarakhand. This victory is dedicated to people’s abiding trust in the principles & politics of @BJP4India guided by the vision of Adarniya Pradhan Mantri Shri @narendramodi Ji,” wrote the Assam CM on Twitter.

Yogi Adityanath, who campaigned for Dhami in Uttarakhand before the by-election, also sent his heartfelt congratulations to the leader. “Heartiest congratulations to the successful Chief Minister of Devbhoomi Uttarakhand, Shri Pushkar Dhami Ji for winning the historic victory in the Champawat Vidhan Sabha by-election. This victory is dedicated to the people’s welfare policies of the respected Prime Minister, your developmental leadership, and the hard work of BJP workers,” said Adityanath in a Tweet in Hindi.

“Congratulations CM Sri @pushkardhami on winning by-elections from Champawat by a huge margin of 55025 votes (secured 58258 votes). All other candidates including the @INCIndia candidate (3233 votes) lost their deposit. Well done Team @BJP4UK @madankaushikbjp,” BJP leader BL Santosh Tweeted.

Meanwhile, news agency ANI shared a video wherein Dhami was seen getting teary-eyed while addressing the people in Champawat upon registering a victory in the bye-elections.

Dhami expressed his gratitude to the people of Champawat shortly after the victory was announced, saying he would repay the “people’s blessing through development efforts.”

“I thank the people of Champawat for this big win. This is the victory of Champawat. I’ll try to return the people’s blessing through development works, the chief minister was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

“We’ll make Uttarakhand an ideal state by 2025. There’s a lot of scope for development in the state’s villages in religious tourism. Many villages are yet to connected to road and internet connectivity, we aim to fulfill all these needs,” Uttarakhand CM further said after he won the by-polls.

On Tuesday, bypolls were held in Champawat, Uttarakhand, Brajarajnagar, Odisha, and Thrikkakara, Kerala.

Dhami had to run for the seat in a bypoll to become a member of the state Assembly, which was a constitutional obligation he had to meet within six months of being sworn in as chief minister. He had lost from Khatima in the state assembly polls held in February. Former BJP MLA Kailash Gehtori had resigned from the seat to allow Dhami to run for the state legislature again.

Dhami was in a straight fight with Congress’ Nirmala Gehtori for the seat in the state’s Kumaon area. Manoj Kumar Bhatt of the Samajwadi Party and Himanshu Garkoti of the Independent Party were the other two candidates in the race.

Dhami secured 57268 votes with Congress at 3147, Samajwadi Party at 409, and independent candidate Himanshu Garkoti at 399 votes. 327 of the votes were given to the NOTA option. 

References:

opindia.com