Former Cabinet Minister and Congress candidate from Doiwala Assembly constituency Hira Singh Bisht won the Assembly bypolls by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Trivendra Singh Rawat by 6,512 votes.
Congress leaders and workers who were disappointed in the initial rounds of counting as Bisht was lagging behind the BJP candidate began celebrating after hearing that Bisht had an edge over Rawat. After the returning officer declared the results, Congressmen who had assembled outside counting venue began dancing to drum beats and smearing each other with colours. The celebration of Congress supporters was heightened after they learnt that the Congress candidates had won all three seats in the Assembly bypolls.
After hearing he was lagging behind Bisht by a large margin, Rawat appeared disappointed but accepted his defeat while thanking BJP workers and voters who supported him in the assembly by poll. He said, "The party had finalised my candidature for Doiwala assembly bypolls just before the nomination. Despite this, BJP workers and I worked hard to win the election. The result of the assembly bypolls would have been different, had the party declared my candidature 15 days before the nomination."
Dehradun district magistrate and district election officer Chandresh Kumar Yadav said that in the presence of Election Commission of India's appointed observer Om Prakash Bakoriya, the vote counting began at 8 am at ITI, Doiwala amid tight security. Additional forces including ITBP, PAC jawans and State police were deployed at the venue for peaceful completion of the counting. Eleven candidates were contesting from Doiwala and a total of 69,088 votes polled for this bypolls were counted in 11 rounds at 14 different tables installed at the venue.
Congress candidate Hira Singh Bisht who won the election secured 35,980 votes, while BJP candidate Trivendra Singh Rawat got 29,464 votes. Other candidates including Furkan polled 1508 votes followed by Akram Chandra with 363 votes, Rishi Kumar with 348 votes, Dharmendra Kumar Pal with 237 votes, Som Dutt with 207 votes, Raju Maurya with 123 votes, Shazid Ali with 118 votes, Sardar Khan with 95 votes, Khalif Ahmed with 65 votes and liyakat Ali with 38.
A total of 542 voters had opted for the none of the above (NOTA) option. The election officials received postal ballot papers- all of which were in the favour of BJP candidate Rawat, he added.
The election officer said that more than 200 government employees had been deputed as zonal magistrates, sector magistrates, presiding, polling and others for completing this assembly bypoll peacefully. Dehradun Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ajay Rautela along with other police officers reached the venue and inspected the security there. Rautela expressed satisfaction at peaceful completion of Doiwala assembly bypolls.