Ruling BJP managed to retain the Mangaldai Lok Sabha seat for the fourth consecutive time as party candidate Dilip Saikia defeated his nearest rival Bhubaneswar Kalita of Congress by a record margin of 1,38,545 votes.
According to the final result of counting which had lasted till late night, winner Saikia bagged a total of 7,35,469 votes including postal which is nearly 49 percent of the total votes (15,06,419) counted for the HPC .
On the other hand, Congress candidate Kalita had to remain content with a total of 5, 96,924 votes i.e just over 39 per cent of the total valid votes.
The victory of margin for the winning BJP candidates from the HPC in 2009 and 2014 were 55,849 and 22,884 respectively.
Saikia was ahead in as many as eight assembly segments–Nalbari, Rangiya, Kamalpur, Panery, Udalguri, Mazbat, Kalaigaon and Sipajhar.
However, in the remaining Mangaldai and Dalgaon LACs in Darrang district, Congress candidate Kalita took the lead.
In the three LAC segments in Udalguri district, Saikia took lead of nearly one lakh four thousand votes.
Similarly the margin of votes both in Kalaigaon and Sipajhar LAC also increased compared to the previous polls.
Talking to media just before final announcement of result, Saikia thanked the people of the constituency for electing him from the seat.
On Friday, Saikia received his certificate of election as member of the House of People from returning officer Ghanashyam Das.
The leaders, workers and supporters of the ruling party celebrated the victory of Saikia and took out a victory rally in Mangaldai town.
