JORHAT, May 24 - The victory margin of Topon Kumar Gogoi after results of the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency was officially declared late on Thursday night by the Returning Officer of the seat Roshni A Korati, who is the Deputy Commissioner, is 82,653 votes.
Gogoi polled 5,43,288 votes while his opponent from the Congress party Sushanta Borgohain polled 4,60,635 votes. Kanak Gogoi of CPI secured the third position by polling 17,849 votes.
Altogether, there were eight candidates contesting from the Jorhat parliamentary seat, including two Independents.
The total number of NOTA votes polled in the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency comprising 10 Assembly seats spread over Jorhat, Sivasagar and Charaideo districts is 12,569.
Topon Kumar Gogoi, presently Minister for Power (independent charge) in the Sarbananda Sonowal-led government, received the �certificate of election� declaring him the winner of the 12 Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency late on Thursday night, from Korati.
After receiving the certificate, Gogoi told newspersons that he felt happy and honoured after being declared as a member of the Lower House of Parliament.
�A big responsibility has been entrusted upon me by the people and I shall do my best to discharge it to the fullest,� Gogoi commented. He thanked the voters for reposing faith in him and also thanked the Government officials and employees engaged in the electoral process for smoothly conducting the polls process.
Meanwhile, the Jorhat district office of the Congress wore a deserted look while the BJP office was full of activities as celebrations continued since yesterday as the saffron party swept the General Election across the country.
It may be mentioned here that the BJP succeeded in retaining the Jorhat parliamentary seat this time after wresting the constituency in 2014 by trouncing veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Late BK Handique.
In 2014, Kamakhya Prasad Tasa was fielded in Jorhat by the BJP, but this time he was replaced by Topon Kumar Gogoi.
The Jorhat Lok Sabha seat, once a Congress citadel, was won consecutively six times by Handique from 1991 to 2009. The constituency under reference has a large number of tea gardens, the workers of which were traditionally voting for the Congress party. But since 2014, the saffron party has been successful in getting overwhelming electoral support from the tea garden voters.
