BJP retains Betul parliamentary seat

Bhopal, Apr 16: BJP candidate Hemant Khandelwal, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in the by-election from Betul, led in six of the eight assembly segments, while his Congress rival Sukhdev Panse was ahead of his rivals in Harda and Masaud segments.

Khandelwal polled a total of 3,00,674 votes against 2,65,234 scored by Panse, a sitting MLA. BJP won the seat for the fifth time in a row. Samajwadi Party MLA Sunilam came on the fourth position bagging only 21,698 votes, while Rewaram, one of the seven independents, came on the third spot scoring 23,051 votes. Gondwana Gantantra Party chief Hira Singh Markam got 11,066 votes, while Samajwadi Jan Parishad nominee Mangal Singh Lokhande polled 4493 votes. Votes polled by indpendents include Ashok (1859 votes), Udal Prasad (4051), Prem Kumar Uike (6852), Bhagcharan (3734), Manjit Singh (3897) and Mansaram (9440). Total valid votes were 6,56,049.

National BJP General Secretary and in charge of Madhya Pradesh Affairs Venkaiah Naidu said that It was a victory of the good work done by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, led Bharatiya Janata Party Government in the State. It is also an indication for the future. Despite massive negative and false propaganda by Congress and pseudo secular forces, the people of Betul have given a clear message that they want BJP to come back to power. It also speaks of the popularity of Shivraj. “I congratulate the Madhya Pradesh BJP unit led by Narender Singh Tomar and his colleagues particularly the workers of BJP of Betul Parliamentary Constituency,” he added.