BJP wins bypoll for Uttarakhand turf; Cong comes close but INDIA ally SP among hurdles in path

BJP fielded wife of its sitting Bageshwar MLA who died; Cong also faced setback in loss of its local strongman to BJP days ahead of polls

Bageshwar: Poll officials arrive at a counting center for Bageshwar seat bypoll, in Bageshwar. (PTI)

2 min readDehradunSep 8, 2023 05:09 PM IST First published on: Sep 8, 2023 at 01:09 PM IST

The BJP retained the Bageshwar Assembly bypoll seat in Uttarakhand on Friday, with its candidate Parwati Dass winning by a narrow margin of 2,405 votes.

Dass is the wife of Chandan Ram Dass, whose death in April necessitated the bypoll. Dass had won Bageshwar for the fourth time in the 2022 Assembly elections by a huge margin.

He was a minister with portfolios of Social Welfare, Minority Welfare, Road Transport, and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.

This time, in an attempt to gain sympathy votes, the BJP fielded Dass’s wife Parwati. After the Congress’s 2022 candidate Ranjit Das left to join the BJP just weeks before the election, the party opted to field former AAP candidate Kumar. Ranjit, however, was not named as the BJP candidate.