By registering a win over his BJP opponent with a huge margin of 39,954 votes from Sitarganj, the Uttarakhand Chief Minister, Mr Vijay Bahuguna, has broken all previous records of Assembly elections since the creation of the separate hill state.

Mr Bahuguna, a Congress candidate, received 53,766 votes out of the total 69,695 while his nearest rival, Mr Prakash Pant, managed to get only 13,812 votes in the July 8 by-election, the counting for which was held yesterday.

The victory margin of 39,954 is the biggest-ever margin recorded in the history of Assembly elections in Uttarakhand so far.

Earlier, former Chief Minister Mr N D Tiwari scored a win over his BJP rival Mr Ram Singh Bisht with an impressive margin of 23,220 in the 2002 Ramnagar by-election.

Thereafter, Mr B C Khanduri had clinched the Dhumakot seat by defeating Mr Surendra Singh Negi of Congress with a margin of 14,171 in the 2007 Assembly by-election.

However, the earlier record of the highest victory margin in any Assembly election was that of Mr Madan Kaushik (BJP), who had won the Haridwar seat by a margin of 28,640 in the 2007 Assembly polls.

Mr Kaushik was followed by State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ms Indira Hridayesh, who defeated BJP’s Ms Renu Adhikari with a margin of 23,583 from Haldwani in the assembly elections held early this year.

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