This story is from September 17, 2014

Rookie Bhatt's margin stuns her party too!

BJP's Ranjan Bhatt won the Vadodara Lok Sabha bypoll on Tuesday with over 3.29 lakh votes, a margin that surprised even her own party.
Rookie Bhatt's margin stuns her party too!
VADODARA: BJP's Ranjan Bhatt won the Vadodara Lok Sabha bypoll on Tuesday with over 3.29 lakh votes, a margin that surprised even her own party.
In the bypoll held on September 13, 7,32,339 valid votes were polled of which Bhatt cornered 5,24,766 while Congress candidate, Narendra Rawat bagged 1,97,256 votes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had vacated the seat after winning with one of the biggest margins of 5.70 lakh in May this year.
BJP leaders were expected to ensure that the party wins with handsome margin in the bypoll. But the Congress had expected a tough fight between Bhatt and Rawat after Vadodara saw a low voter turnout of 45.39 per cent. Also, both BJP and Congress had not been able to campaign much due to lack of time and floods that submerged the city for few days. However, the first few rounds of counting on Tuesday determined the winner.
By fourth round of counting at the Polytechnic College counting centre, Bhatt had polled over 1.34 votes while Rawat was far behind at 45,763. By seventh round, Bhatt polled over 2.26 lakh votes while Rawat was far behind at 80,604 votes. The margin of votes cornered by Bhatt and Rawat kept increasing with each round. By 11th round, Bhatt got a clear majority with 3,48,475 votes while Rawat polled 1,30,871 votes.
In 18th and final round, Bhatt walked away with 5,24,766 votes and Rawat got 1,96,916 votes. Victory celebrations began immediately outside the counting centre as BJP workers broke into song and dance. Bhatt too arrived at the centre to greet the workers "I am thankful to the voters for showing faith in me and I promise to work for the development of Vadodara. I am also grateful to my party for giving me the opportunity to represent Vadodara," Bhatt said after the victory.
Rawat said that he accepted people's verdict and will keep working for the betterment of the constituency.
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