MANGALDAI, May 24 - The ruling BJP with allies AGP and BPF has managed to retain the 8 Mangaldai Lok Sabha seat for the fourth consecutive term as its candidate Dilip Saikia defeated his nearest rival Congress candidate Bhubaneswar Kalita by a record margin of 1,38,545 votes.
According to the final result of counting, which lasted late into the night yesterday, winner Dilip Saikia won a total of 7,35,469 votes, including postal which is nearly 49 per cent of the total votes (15,06,419) counted for the HPC. On the other hand, Congress candidate Bhubaneswar Kalita had to remain content with a total of 5,96,924, i.e., just over 39 per cent of the total valid votes. It may be noted here that the victory of margin for the winning BJP candidates from the HPC in 2009 and 2014 were 55,849 and 22,884 respectively.
Dilip Saikia got the lead in as many as eight Assembly segments viz., Nalbari, Rangiya, Kamalpur, Panery, Udalguri, Mazbat, Kalaigaon and Sipajhar out of the ten Assembly segments scattered around four different districts while in Panery in Udalguri district and his home district Nalbari the margin of lead was more than 50,000 each. However, in the remaining Mangaldai and Dalgaon LACs in Darrang district, Congress candidate Bhubaneswar Kalita took the lead.
In the three LAC segments in Udalguri district, Dilip Saikia took a lead of nearly 1,40,000 votes. Similarly, the margin of votes both in Kalaigaon and Sipajhar LACs have also increased in comparison to the previous polls recording a difference of above 30,000 and 18,000 votes respectively. Talking to the media just before final announcement of the result, Dilip Saikia first thanked the people of the Lok Sabha constituency for electing him from the prestigious seat with a convincing margin and assured the people to play an active role in the Parliament.
On Friday, Dilip Saikia received his certificate of election as member of the House of People from Returning Officer of the HPC and Deputy Commissioner of Darrang Ghanashyam Dass in the presence of Mangaldai legislator Gurujyoti Das, Additional Deputy Commissioner Kulen Sarma and the president of Darrang district BJP Nilima Debi. Meanwhile, the leaders, workers and supporters of the ruling party celebrated the victory by taking out a rally in Mangaldai town.
