BJP's Purushottam Khandelwal leads in Agra North assembly bypoll

AGRA: BJP candidate Purushottam Khandelwal has won the Agra North assembly bypoll. This was the sixth consecutive victory of the party from the seat.


Khandelwal, who is also BJP’s state unit vice-president, was leading with 60,000 votes at the time of filing this report. His nearest rival, Samajwadi Party candidate Suraj Sharma, was trailing.

Congress’s Ranvir Sharma, a former president of Agra College student union, was in third position while Dileep Kumar Baghel of Pragatishil Samajwadi Party (Lohia) on fourth.

Talking with TOI, Khandelwal said, “I got overwhelming response during election campaigning and was sure about the victory. Party workers efforts to gather public support in such a short time has resulted in a large mandate. The victory is dedicated to them. I have promised the people of the constituency to remain in touch with them all the time and work in accordance with their common wish. My primary focus will be upgrading basic infrastructure. All the required development works recommended by the people will be pursued with the state government.”

As many as 12 candidates were in the fray. Out of these, six represented different political parties and the remaining were contesting as Independents. Two Independent candidates were not able to secure even 100 votes and four others secured less than 1,000. More than 800 voters opted for NOTA.

The byelection was necessitated following the death of five-time BJP MLA Jagan Prasad Garg. The polling took place on May 19. Only 39.45% voting was recorded. Senior BJP leaders, including mayor of Agra Naveen Jain, had gone from door to door, asking voters to come out and exercise their franchise.

The Agra North seat is dominated by Bania community. It has been a BJP stronghold since 1985. Garg was elected MLA for the first time in a 1998 byelection from the seat by defeating Congress’s Govind Agarwal.

Garg defeated Agarwal the second time in the 2002 state assembly elections. In 2007 and 2012, Garg defeated BSP candidates Sarv Prakash Kapoor and Rajesh Agarwal, respectively. In 2017, he defeated BSP candidate Gyanendra Gautam by over 86,000 votes.