BJP’s incumbent MP Dharambir retains Bhiwani-Mahendragarh

Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, May 24

BJP’s incumbent MP and party’s candidate for the Bhiwani-Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat Dharambir Singh has retained the seat by defeating his nearest rival and Congress nominee Shruti Choudhry by a margin of 4,44,463 votes.

Dharambir had won the seat in the last General Election held in 2014, defeating Shruti by a margin of 1,29,394 votes then, which has shown a sharp increase this time.

Talking to reporters, Dharambir attributed his victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed hope that the BJP would perform equally well in the upcoming elections to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha under the leadership of state Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

On the other hand, Congress nominee Shruti Choudhry’s mother and CLP Leader in Haryana Legislative Assembly Kiran Choudhry stated that they had accepted the people’s mandate with humility.

“We have been doing our best for the people of our constituency and will continue to serve them to the best of our capability. We accept the people’s mandate in all humility,” she said while talking to The Tribune.

Dharambir got 7,36,699 votes, while Shruti polled 2,92,236 votes. Swati Yadav of the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) got 84,956 votes and stood third. Ramesh Rao Pilot of the BSP-LSP combine bagged the fourth position by polling 20,234 votes, while Balwan Singh of the INLD got 8,065. As many as 2,041 voters preferred None Of The Above (NOTA).

As per the data available on the Election Commission of India website, Dharambir got as many as 63.45 per cent of the total valid votes polled, while Shruti got 25.17 per cent and Swati 7.32 per cent.