Begusarai (Bihar), May 23: Union minister and firebrand BJP leader Giriraj Singh retained the Begusarai seat for his party, trouncing his nearest rival Kanhaiya Kumar of the CPI by a staggering margin of over four lakh votes.

Singh, who had moved to Begusarai from Nawada, after initial reluctance over having to give up his sitting seat, got 6.88 lakh votes out of a total of 12.17 lakhs polled on April 29.

Kanhaiya Kumar, who first shot to fame after being booked in a sedition case while he was the president of the JNU students' union, polled 2.68 lakh votes.

RJDs Tanveer Hassan, who was the runner-up in 2014, stood third with just 1.97 lakh votes.

The seat was won by BJP's Bhola Singh five years ago who died last year.

Notably, 20,408 voters in the constituency opted for NOTA.

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Puducherry (PTI): AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday held a meeting with the newly elected MLAs from Tamil Nadu at a private resort near Ariyankuppam on the outskirts of Puducherry.

Nearly 40 legislators were present at the meeting, which lasted nearly one hour.

Party sources said that Palaniswami asked the MLAs-elect to remain united and be patient.

"Good things will emerge and hence you should all remain united and patient in the resort in the next couple of days," he told the MLAs.

The development comes amid TVK's attempts to secure a majority in the 234-member strong Tamil Nadu Assembly. The Congress party, which has 5 MLAs, has already extended support to the TVK.

In the TN Assembly election, the TVK has won 108 seats, the DMK 59, AIADMK 47, Congress 5, PMK 4, IUML 2, CPI 2, CPI-M 2, and the VCK 2. The BJP, DMDK and AMMK have got 1 seat each.

TVK is five short of the required 118 MLAs to form its first government in Tamil Nadu.

Puducherry AIADMK state secretary and lone MLA A Anbalagan, along with party functionaries received Palaniswami at the resort.