Uttarakhand Chief Minister VijayBahuguna today won the Sitarganj Assembly seat by a recordmargin of 39,954 votes over his nearest BJP rival to retainthe top post.
The victory margin is the highest in all the assemblyelections in Uttarakhand so far, officials said.
At the end of the last round of counting of votes,Bahuguna won 39,954 votes to beat BJP's Prakash Pant, a formercabinet minister, said Radha Raturi, Chief Electoral Officer.
Sitarganj by-election was held on July 8 to decide thefate of the chief minister, who had to win the election tocontinue in office.
The by-election was necessitated after BJP MLA KiranMandal quit in favour of Bahuguna.
Immediately after the results, Bahuguna thanked thepeople of Sitarganj for giving him a big victory and said hewould now work for development of Uttarakhand, particularlySitarganj.
The by-election in Sitarganj was marred by allegations ofrigging with the state election Office ordering an inquiry bythe district magistrate to verify them as the BJP had formallylodged a complaint seeking to cancel nomination of Bahuguna.