Monday, 03 May 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Mahesh Jeena won the Salt assembly bypoll by defeating his nearest rival- Congress candidate Ganga Pancholi by 4,697 votes. While Jeena secured 21,874 votes, the Congress candidate received 17,177 votes.
According to the election commission, while the BJP secured 52.20 per cent of the vote share, the Congress got 40.99 per cent and the others got 5.09 per cent of the vote share with 1.72 per cent of the voters opting for None Of The Above (NOTA). It will be recalled that Salt had registered about 43 per cent polling on April 17 and Jeena, the brother of the late MLA Surendra Singh Jeena was considered most likely to win the by election.
Following the results on Sunday, the BJP State president Madan Kaushik thanked the people of Salt, stating that the voters have sent a clear message that they want development to continue in the constituency. He said that the vote share of the BJP had increased while that of the Congress had decreased compared to 2017. The opponents were trying to create an atmosphere of fear and disinformation in the area in which some senior leaders of a divided opposition were also involved, said Kaushik, adding that elections are contested on the basis of trust and development.
Chief minister Tirath Singh Rawat said that the promise made to the people of Salt regarding continuing the works of the late MLA will certainly be fulfilled. The incomplete works of the late MLA will be completed, said Rawat.
