Mamta Rakesh betters her husband’s victory margin

Tribune News Service

Haridwar, April 15

Mamta Rakesh had earlier played a pivotal role in the electoral as well as political success of her late husband Kumar Rakesh and today she won the Bhagwanpu byelection bettering her husband’s winning record.

Congress candidate Mamta Rakesh won the Bhagwanpur (reserved) byelection to become the first woman legislator from the segment. She got the highest number of votes among the candidates in the segment and also registered the victory with the highest margin.

Mamta polled 59,205 votes and won by a record margin of 36,909 votes. Thus she outscored her husband, who had been a two-time legislator from the segment and runner-up once in 2002.

During the 2002 Assembly election when Bhagwanpur was carved out as a separate Assembly seat, Chandra Sekhar of the BJP got 15,875 votes and defeated BSP candidate Surendra Rakesh, who got 12,527 votes, by a margin of 3,348 votes.

In the next Assembly election in 2007, Surendra Rakesh fighting on the BSP ticket secured 27,776 votes and defeated BJP candidate Chandrasekhar, who got 23,643 votes. In the 2012 Assembly election, Surendra Rakesh got 36,828 votes and improved his victory margin to 6,781 votes against Congress candidate Satya Pal, who got 30,047 votes.

Today, Mamta Rakesh bettered her husband’s record and won by a margin of 36,909 votes, which is the highest margin in the four Assembly elections held after the creation of Uttarakhand.