DIBRUGARH, May 16 � Bharatiya Janata Party�s (BJP) Rameshwar Teli recorded a thumping victory in Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency here with a whooping margin of 1,85,347, defeating Congress veteran and Union DoNER Minister of State Paban Singh Ghatowar.
Ghatowar had been the MP of Dibrugarh for twenty five years. He faced rout in all Legislative Assembly constituencies within Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency. Teli garnered a total of 4,94,364 votes while the Ghatowar of the Indian National Congress secured 3,09,017 votes. Teli, a former tea tribes students� association leader and former BJP MLA of Duliajan had declared earlier that he would win by a margin of about one and a half lakh.
Meanwhile, Ghatowar could not be reached for a comment on his defeat. Elated Teli who was moving around with a garland and Asomiya gamochas around his neck inside the poll counting campus said that he had neither seen nor experienced such euphoria in his life. �I am surprised by the degree of excitement and joy within the party. I had never felt this in my life,� he said. On the record margin, he said that the outcome was due to the hard work of the party workers and because of the want among the voters for change. �People were unhappy with the misrule and corruption of the Congress,� he said.
On his role as the MP of Dibrugarh, Teli said he would make every effort to usher development in the region. �Namrup�s fertilizer units will be revived along with industrialisation and other infrastructural developments. About Bogibeel, the newly elected BJP MP said that Atal Bihari Vajpayee had laid the foundation stone of the Bogibeel bridge and this time it would be Narendra Modi, who would open the bridge,� Teli said.
Interestingly, there were 16,809 NOTA votes in the constituency. The AGP�s Anup Phukan polled 45,710 votes, thereby forfeiting his security deposit. The three other candidates in the constituency also lost their security deposits.
