Assembly elections 2018: Tuivawl constituency of Mizoram sees lowest victory margin

The battle for these five states saw many close finishes, especially in Madhya Pradesh, where the contest between BJP and Congress went down the wire.

The closest contest was witnessed in the Tuivawl constituency of Mizoram, where Lal Chhandama Ralte of MNF clinched a nail-biting finish against RL Piamawia of Congress by a margin of just 3 votes.

 

The Lunglei district in Mizoram also recorded two close-run battles. In the Lunglei (East) and Lunglei (West) constituency, the MNF candidates won with a margin of only 70-odd votes.

However, for Mizoram, witnessing such nerve-wracking contests is not uncommon, because of its small base of the electorate. But in even in the bigger states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh, many candidates won by a whisker.

As many as 25 constituencies in these five states, the winning margin was less than 1,000 votes and winners in ten out of these seats had winning margin even less than 500 votes.

For instance, in Gwalior (South) constituency, Praveen Pathak of Congress defeated the incumbent MLA of BJP, Narayan Singh Kushwah, by a margin of 121 votes. In the Asind constituency, Rajasthan Jabbar Singh Sankhala of BJP won by just 154 votes against the Congress candidate.

Similarly, in the Asifabad constituency in Telangana, the battle between Athram Sakku of Congress and TRS candidate Kova Laxmi was going neck and neck throughout but Sakku managed to win the seat by just 171 votes.

In another close clash, the independent candidate, Khushveer Singh ousted the incumbent MLA, Kesaram Choudhary of BJP by 251 votes in Marwar Junction constituency in Rajasthan.

Even in Dhamtari constituency in Chattisgarh, the incumbent MLA, Gurumuk Singh Hora of Congress lost to Ranjana Sahu of BJP after giving tough fight till the end. Sahu managed to win the seat by a margin of only 464 votes.

Unsurprisingly, ten such tight finishes were seen in Madhya Pradesh between BJP and Congress, where the winning margin was less than 1,000 votes.

Candidates gave a tough fight to each other, but in the end, seven such results went in favour of Congress, while BJP winning the rest. It was anybody’s game until the last round of counting votes and the BJP was that close to form the government in Madhya Pradesh for the fourth consecutive term.