Lok Sabha 2019 election results: BJP's Varun Gandhi wins Pilibhit seat, defeats SP's Hemraj Verma by over 2.5 lakh votes

BJP's Varun Gandhi has won the Pilibhit seat with a margin of over 2.5 lakh votes. Gandhi polled a total of 7,04,549 votes while his nearest rival, Hemraj Verma of Samajwadi Party, got 4,48,922 votes.

Gandhi allegedly made controversial remarks while campaigning for his mother Maneka Gandhi in Sultanpur, a seat he won in 2014 (mother and son switched seats this time round). He called rival candidates “people of Pakistan” and said people who once picked up cow dung now drive cars worth Rs 5 crore in videos that surfaced on social media. He denied making such remarks in an interview with The Indian Express.

Gandhi’ comments in Sultanpur came just days after he targeted a rival candidate in Sultanpur by saying that he gets such people to “untie his shoes”. The Election Commission prohibited Maneka from campaigning for two days for a speech in which she said she “will not be inclined to help Muslims if they do not vote for her”.