BJP's C R Patil wins by 6.89 lakh votes, biggest victory margin in 2019 elections
New Delhi, May 23: Two-time BJP MP C R Patil Thursday came close to surpassing the all-time victory margin in Lok Sabha polls as he won the Navsari seat in Gujarat by garnering 6.89 lakh more votes than his rival the highest margin in 2019 polls.
So far, the highest victory margin of 6.96 lakh votes in Lok Sabha polls belongs to Pritam Munde, who won the by-election to Beed seat in Maharashtra in October 2014. The by-poll was necessitated after the death of her father and senior BJP leader Gopitnath Munde.
Patil has party colleagues Sanjay Bhatia, Krishan Pal and Subhash Chandra Baheria in the 6 lakh-plus club, while about a dozen other candidates have won by over 5 lakh margin.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi widened his victory margin to 4.79 lakh votes when he defeated his nearest rival of Shalini Yadav of Samajwadi Party in Varanasi parliamentary constituency. In 2014, he had defeated Arvind Kejeriwal by 3.71 lakh votes.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah won his maiden Lok Sabha election by a huge margin of 5.57 lakh votes from Gandhinagar in Gujarat this elections, bettering senior party leader L K Advani's margin of 4.83 lakh votes in 2014.
The party got winners with huge margins primarily in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh which it swept defeating nearest Congress rivals.
In the results declared by the Election Commission on Thursday, Sanjay Bhatia won the Karnal constituency in Haryana by a margin of 6.56 lakh votes, while his party colleague Krishan Pal won Faridabad in the same state by 6.38 lakh votes.
With his party sweeping Rajasthan, Subhash Chandra Baheria of the BJP won the Bhilwara seat in the state by 6.12 lakh votes.
Shankar Lalwani, who contested from Indore in Madhya Pradesh on BJP ticket after Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan opted out of the race, defeated his nearest Congress rival by a margin of 5.47 lakh votes. Mahajan, an eight-time Lok Sabha MP, had in 2014 had won the seat by 4.67 lakh votes.
Contesting for the first time, Ramakant Bhargava, standing in from Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj opted out, won by 5.03 lakh votes, a lakh vote higher than victory margin in 2014 elections.
In Gujarat's Vadodara, BJP Ranjanben Bhatt won by 5.87 lakh votes while in neighbouring Surat Darshana Vikram Jardosh won by 5.48 lakh votes.
In Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad constituency, Uday Pratap Singh returned to the Lok Sabha by a margin of 5.53 lakh votes.
Of the seven constituencies in the national capital, two BJP candidates emerged victorious by over 5 lakh votes -- Hans Raj Hans in North West Delhi (5.53 lakh) and Parvesh Verma in West Delhi (5.78 lakh).
C P Joshi of BJP won Chittorgarh seat in Rajasthan by a margin of 5.76 lakh and his colleague Diya Kumari from Jaipur royal family won by 5.51 lakh in Rajsamand constituency. General (Retd) V K Singh also won Ghaziabad seat by over 5 lakh votes.
During 2014 general elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi won his Vadodara seat with the highest margin. He defeated his nearest rival by a huge margin of 5,70,128 votes. He, however, resigned from the seat and retained Varanasi parliamentary constituency where victory margin was 3,71,784.
The second-biggest victory margin was of General V K Singh (BJP) from Ghaziabad constituency with winning difference of 5,67,260 votes. Former army chief was followed by C R Patil (BJP), who won Navsari seat in Gujarat, with a margin of 5,58,116 votes.
Another BJP candidate Ramcharan Bohara won Jaipur seat with a vote margin of 5,39,345. Darshana Vikram Jardosh (BJP) won Surat, Gujarat, seat with a difference of 5,33,190 votes.
The sixth-highest victory margin crown was with CPM candidate Sankar Prasad Datta of Tripura West. He won the seat with a difference of 5,03,486 votes. Jitendra Chaudhury followed him by winning Tripura East seat by 4,84,358 votes.
BJP patriarch L K Advani won Gandhinagar, Gujarat, seat with a margin of 4,83,121. He was followed by another senior BJP leader Sumitra Mahajan, who defeated her rival by 4,66,901 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
Tenth biggest victory margin was of Krishan Pal (BJP), who defeated his opponent by 4,66,873 votes in Faridabad, Haryana.
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Kejriwal responds to EC, says water received from Haryana 'extremely poisonous' for human health
New Delhi (PTI): AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday responded to the Election Commission notice over his claim the Haryana government was "mixing poison" in Yamuna, and said raw water received from the BJP-ruled state in the recent past has been "highly contaminated and extremely poisonous" for human health.
In the 14-page reply to the Election Commission, the former Delhi chief minister said if such "toxic water" is allowed to be consumed by human population it would lead to grave health hazard and fatality.
Kejriwal said he only wanted to highlight the "urgent public health crisis" due to the quality of drinking water in the city, and he violated no law or Model Code of Conduct, hence the issue should be closed.
He said the "alleged statements" attributed to him were made as it was his public duty to red flag the "severe toxicity and contamination" of raw water received from the BJP-ruled state.
Following a complaint filed by the BJP over the matter, the Election Commission issued the notice to Kejriwal on Tuesday, giving him time till Wednesday 8 pm to furnish his reply.
Kejriwal also said the ammonia level in raw water received from Haryana was so "extreme" that water treatment plants in Delhi are unable to process and bring it down to safe and permissible limits for human consumption.
Following their party chief's response, the AAP issued a statement, saying, "It is an undisputed fact that there is 7 ppm ammonia in Yamuna water, A Delhi Jal Board CEO letter admits toxicity is 700 percent higher than the permissible limit."
In his response to the EC, Kejriwal also alleged that Haryana's "failure" in controlling pollution in Yamuna has resulted in an "unprecedented public health crisis" in Delhi. He alleged "indiscriminate" discharge of industrial waste in the river by the state.
The AAP supremo said Haryana is an upper-riparian state and Delhi, ruled by his party, has no role to play in the high level of toxic water being made available to the city.
"Due to such high level of toxic content in the raw water supplied by Haryana, the water treatment plants in Delhi are operating below capacity and there is a shortage of treated water in Delhi," he claimed.
Saying that access to clean water is a basic human right, the AAP chief asserted that raising this critical issue cannot be considered an offence.
"The said statement by no stretch of the imagination can be termed inciting enmity between different groups or prejudicial to national integration," he said.
On the contrary, the substance and purpose of these statements are rooted solely in the public interest, aimed at highlighting a legitimate civic concern that requires urgent institutional intervention, he asserted.
He requested the EC to intervene in the matter and issue appropriate directions to Haryana so safe water is made available to the people of Delhi.
