BJP wins Bageshwar bypoll in Uttarakhand

Dehradun: The BJP on Friday retained the Bageshwar assembly seat in Uttarakhand with its candidate Parwati Dass defeating Congress' Basant Kumar by more than 2,400 votes.

Dass polled 33,247 votes while Kumar got 30,842 votes, Bageshwar District Magistrate and returning officer Anuradha Pal said.

The BJP won by 2,405 votes, she declared.

Bypoll to the seat was held on September 5 with 55.44 per cent of the electorate casting their vote.

Parwati Dass, who won the seat, is wife of the late Chandan Ram Dass whose death in April this year had necessitated the bypoll.

Her husband had been winning the seat consecutively since 2007.

This is the fifth time in a row that the BJP has bagged the seat.

The three other candidates in the fray have all lost their deposits.