BJP's Bholanath records lowest victory margin; wins Machhlishahr seat by 181 votes

BJP's Bholanath won the Machhlishahr seat in Uttar Pradesh by just 181 votes, the lowest margin recorded in the Lok Sabha elections, defeating Tribhuvan Ram of the BSP.

This is the lowest margin of victory among the results declared for more than 375 seats by the Election Commission of India (ECI) so far.

Going by the latest available data, the victory margin of Bholanath -- who polled 4,88,397 votes -- is likely to be the lowest.

In the 2014 general elections, Machhlishahr seat was won by BJP's Ram Charitra Nishad by more than 1.72 lakh votes.

Several constituencies witnessed tight contests as votes were counted Thursday for the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls that ended on May 19.

Among other seats, in Lakshadweep, National Congress Party's Mohammed Faizal P P managed to win by 823 votes. He defeated Congress rival Hamdullah Sayeed.

Congress's Kuldeep Rai Sharma defeated his nearest rival Vishal Jolly (BJP) by just 1,407 votes to win the Andaman & Nicobar Islands Lok Sabha seat.

Jahanabad constituency in Bihar too is witnessing a close contest between Chandeshwar Prasad of JD(U) and Surendra Prasad Yadav of Rashtriya Janta Dal. Prasad was ahead of his rival by 1,075 votes as per the latest update.

The victory margin at Rohtak seat in Haryana is expected to be low as BJP's Arvind Sharma was leading by about 2,600 votes over Deepender Singh Hooda (Congress). Deepender is son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Incidentally, the senior Hooda lost to BJP's Ramesh Chander Kaushik in the keenly watched contest for Sonepat constituency.

Arjun Munda, former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, was leading with 1,098 at Khunti seat over his nearest rival Kali Charan Munda of Congress.

In neighbouring West Bengal, TMC's Aparupa Poddar (Afrin Ali) was ahead of BJP's Tapan Kumar Ray by 1,142 votes at Arambagh constituency.