Two sitting Chief Ministers lose assembly elections

New Delhi: Uttarakhand’s Harish Rawat and Goa’s Laxmikant Parsekar, both sitting Chief Ministers, lost their seats in the assembly elections on Saturday.

Rawat lost both seats he contested from, as the ruling Congress was handed a humiliating drubbing by the BJP in the hill state.

Rawat lost Haridwar (Rural) by 12,278 votes and Kichcha by 2,127 votes to BJP candidates.

In Goa, where the BJP came a close second with 13 seats to the Congress’ 17 seats, state Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar was defeated by Congress’ Dayanand Sopte in Mandrem constituency by 7,119 votes.

In Punjab where Congress was on its way to form the government, Congress party’s chief ministerial candidate Amarinder Singh was defeated by outgoing Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, 89, in Lambi by a margin of over 22,000 votes.

However, Amarinder was the clear winner from his traditional assembly constituency of Patiala-Urban where he defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s Balbir Singh by 52,407 votes.

Irom Sharmila, who entered politics after breaking a 16-year-long fast demanding the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, lost to Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh of the Congress.

Sharmila got fewer than 100 votes, even lower than the NOTA option.

In Goa, former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Vasant Kamat of the Congress won from Margao by 4,176.

Goa’s Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar (BJP) lost to Jayesh Salgaoncar, from a regional party, by 1,441 votes.

Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee President Kishore Upadhyay lost Sahaspur seat to the BJP by 18,863 votes.

Uttarakhand BJP President Ajay Bhatt, who was also being considered one of the front-runners for the post of Chief Minister if the party won the elections, lost to his old rival Karan Mahara of the Congress in Ranikhet constituency by 4,981 votes.

In Uttar Pradesh where Samajwadi Party suffered a massive defeat, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav was defeated by the BJP’s Rita Bahaguna Joshi in Lucknow Cantonment constituency by 33,796 votes.

–IANS