The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Devyani Rana has won the Nagrota bypoll in Jammu, defeating Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) candidate Harsh Dev Singh by a margin of 24, 647 votes.
Counting for the Nagrota bypoll was held on Friday. By the end of the 11th round, the BJP polled 42,350 votes, while the JKNPP candidate Harsh Dev Singh secured 17, 703 votes. National Conference candidate Shamim Begum finsihed third with 10,872 votes.
By the third round, the BJP had polled 11,581 votes, while the JKNPP candidate secured 4,280 votes, followed by National Conference candidate Shamim Begum with 2,464 votes.
Devyani Rana is the daughter of BJP MLA Devender Rana, whose demise necessitated the Nagrota by-election. She had established a lead from the start ever since the counting of votes began.
After winning, the newly-elected BJP MLA Devyani Rana expressed gratitude to the electors for choosing her in the same manner they voted for her father.
"I am fortunate that the manner in which Nagrota blessed Rana sahib (her father, late MLA Devender Singh Rana), they did their duty of being a family today too and blessed me. I will be thankful to them...When BJP contests elections, it does so to win. You can see the results here in Nagrota as well as in Bihar," she said.
The Nagrota assembly constituency, which went for polling on November 11, saw a voter turnout of more than 75 per cent.