BJP candidate Hanumant Nirani won the Legislative Council election from North West Graduates Constituency by a huge margin of votes in the early hours of Thursday. He defeated his rival Congress candidate Sunil Sank by a margin of 34,693 votes.
Nirani polled 44,815 votes and Sank polled 10,122 votes.
It's the second consecutive win for Nirani from the constituency in as many elections. Riding on large numbers of voters enrolment and Nirani family-controlled companies providing employment to thousands, he made it home without any hurdle.
Nirani's win gave some solace to BJP which suffered a huge jolt from North West Teachers Constituency wherein its candidate Arun Shahapur had to bite the dust.
A total of 11 candidates were in the fray from the graduate's constituency. It was a straight contest between Nirani and Sank as other independent candidates could not make their presence felt.
The counting of votes process commenced on Wednesday at 8 am. As votes cast were in large numbers, sorting and making of bundles of 25 votes each prolonged. The counting of votes began after 3 pm and was completed after 16 hours.
Among the 65,922 votes cast, 56,916 were valid and 9006 votes were rejected. Nirani polled 44,815 votes and Sank polled 10,122 votes.
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