Ahmedabad: Kalaben Delkar, the widow of former MP from Dadra & Nagar Haveli (DNH) Lok Sabha constituency, has emerged as the winner in the by-election to the seat. The by-election was necessitated following the seven-time Lok Sabha MP’s death by suicide earlier this year.
Kalaben contested her maiden parliamentary election on the Shiv Sena symbol. Voting for the seat, which is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates, took place on Saturday. The BJP, which had lost the seat in 2019 to Delkar, had fielded Mahesh Gavit.
Kalaben built a steady lead right from the time the counting of votes began on Tuesday morning and continued to widen the gap. She won the election with a comfortable margin, securing over 1.18 lakh votes, compared with 66,700 votes by second-placed Gavit.
Congress nominee Mahesh Dodhi secured 3.1% of 6,150 votes, just more than 2.8% of 5,500+ voters who opted for None Of The Above (NOTA).
A political observer from the union territory told TLA that Kalaben benefited from the sympathy wave following her husband’s mysterious death, who had allegedly hung himself at a hotel in Mumbai in February. Delkar was associated with both the BJP and Congress over the years and also floated his own party. He had won in the 2019 elections as an independent candidate.