Champawat: Dhami wins by-poll with over 55,000 votes; PM Modi greets him; BJP celebrates

New Delhi: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami won the Champawat by-election by a huge margin on Friday, securing his chair for the five-year term.

It was a must-win election for the incumbent CM as he had lost his Khatima seat in the Assembly elections and had to get elected to the Assembly within six months to retain the CM chair.

Dhami defeated his Congress rival Nirmala Gahtori by 55,025 votes, election officials said.

PM congratulates ‘dynamic’ Dhami for win

PM Modi was among the first leaders to extend congratulatory message to Pushkar Dhami. He also thanked the voters of Champawat for retaining faith in BJP & Dhami’s leadership.

Congratulations to Uttarakhand’s dynamic CM @pushkardhami for the record win from Champawat. I am confident he will work even harder for the progress of Uttarakhand. I thank the people of Champawat for placing their faith in BJP and laud our Karyakartas for their hardwork.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 3, 2022

Celebrations outside BJP office

Soon after the results were declared, the party workers took to the streets for celebrating Dhami’s victory. They distributed sweets to people while others took to drum beating.

Chief Minister Pushkar Dhami said that he was grateful to the electorate for electing him to the top office.

“My heart is very emotional with the love and blessings showered by you through votes in Champawat by-election, I am silent,” Dhami tweets minutes after results were declared.

Champawat | BJP workers celebrate as Uttarakhand CM Pushkar Singh Dhami leads from Champawat assembly seat with 54,121 votes

CM shows a victory sign as trends indicate a win in key bypoll pic.twitter.com/jZ64wESUVq

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) June 3, 2022

Dhami was engaged in a straight combat with Congress’ Nirmala Gehtori for the seat in Kumaon region. The other two in the fray were Samajwadi Party candidate Manoj Kumar Bhatt and Independent Himashu Gadkoti.