The ruling Congress’s candidate was declared winner of the by-election to the Bhagwanpur Assembly seat in Haridwar district on Wednesday, regaining a majority in the House. With the win, the Congress now has 36 MLAs in the 70-member Assembly.
Mamata Rakesh of the party got 59,205 votes against the 36,909 of Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Rajpal Singh. The by-election was necessitated by the death of Surendra Rakesh, Ms. Rakesh’s husband and Minister of Transport and Social Welfare in the Harish Rawat Cabinet. He was a member of the Progressive Democratic Front, a Congress ally.
The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party did not field a candidate from the seat, which made it a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP.
