BJP retains Aurangabad's Mukhed seat with big margin

AURANGABAD: It was almost a cakewalk for the BJP in Mukhed assembly byelection as its candidate Tushar Rathod retained the seat by a margin of over 47,000 votes. The elections were held on February 13, while the results were declared on Monday.Tushar polled 1,00,319 votes by the end of 23rd round of counting, while Congress nominee Hanumantrao Betmogrekar received 53,071 votes. Of the total 2,81,008 voters, 56.12% of them had exercised their franchise at 322 polling stations.The bypoll was facilitated due to the sudden death of BJP MLA Govind Rathod. He died on October 27, 2014, while travelling to Mumbai by train. The BJP had fielded his doctor son Tushar, a political novice, who rode on sympathy wave that his father’s death generated. Govind Rathod was a popular figure in Mukhed and had won the seat in 2014 by a huge margin of 73,000 votes by also defeating Betmogrekar.The Congress again nominated Betmogrekar, a close confidante of former chief minister Ashok Chavan. The byelection was a challenge for a beleaguered Chavan, who extensively campaigned for Bemogrekar, but to no avail.Tushar registered a thumping victory like his father Govind in Mukhed, said a senior BJP leader. Rathod, who died of cardiac arrest while on his way to Mumbai to attend the BJP’s legislature party meeting, had left the Congress to join the BJP on the eve of 2014 Lok Sabha elections at the behest of late party stalwart Gopinath Munde. He was instrumental in getting a lead of about 15,000 votes for BJP nominee D B Patil from Mukhed assembly segment in the Nanded Lok Sabha constituency, a BJP leader said.Suresh Gholve, sub-divisional officer and assistant election officer, said the election process was completed in a peaceful atmosphere and no considerable untoward incident was reported from any part of the constituency. He said 962 voters exercised none of the above (NOTA) option. Other candidates and the votes they obtained include Azimoddin Hafez Sahab of Indian Union Muslim League (1,145 votes); Vijay Bhimrao Kamble Akhargekar of Republican Party of India-Democratic (483 votes); and independents Anil Tejrao Shirse (962 votes), Afzal Shaikh alias Shaikh Sir (263 votes) and Vijaymala Gajanan Gaikwad (511 votes).