Congress trounced in Vidisha

Bhopal, Nov 2 (UNI) The BJP retained Vidisha Lok Sabha seat in the by-election when its candidate and Madhya Pradesh PHE Minister Rampal Singh trounced his Congress rival Mrs Rajshri Singh by a margin of more than 85,000 votes.

The BJP candidate polled 2,58,263 votes against 1,73,175 votes bagged by his Congress rival.

Uma Bharti-led Bharatiya Jan Shakti's state President Raghunandan Sharma came at the third place. He managed 1,37,354 votes.

However, the winning margin was less compared to previous election when Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had bagged 65.19 per cent votes and defeated his nearest rival Mr Narbada Prasad Sharma of the Congress by over 2.5 lakh votes.

The by-election for Vidisha, considered BJP stronghold, was necessitated when Mr Chouhan vacated the seat following his election to the state assembly. Mr Chouhan had been elected five times from Vidisha, a former constituency of ex-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

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