Rudraprayag: The counting of votes for the Kedarnath Assembly by-election wrapped up around 1:30 PM. After a total of 13 rounds of counting, the BJP candidate Asha Nautiyal received 23,814 votes, which included 23,130 votes from electronic voting machines (EVMs) and 684 postal ballots. In contrast, the Congress candidate Manoj Rawat garnered 18,192 votes, with 18,031 coming from EVMs and 161 from postal ballots. This means Asha Nautiyal won by a margin of 5,622 votes over Manoj Rawat.Additionally, independent candidate Tribhuwan Singh Chauhan came in third with 9,311 votes, while Ashutosh Bhandari from the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal secured fourth place with 1,314 votes.
Independent candidate R.P. Singh received 493 votes, placing fifth, and Pradeep Roshan from the PPI (D) finished sixth with 483 votes. Notably, 834 votes were cast in favor of NOTA (None of the Above). A total of 262 postal ballots were rejected. Overall, 53,513 votes were counted through EVMs, with 1,190 postal ballots contributing to a total of 54,700 votes in the by-election.District Election Officer Saurabh Gaharwar congratulated and thanked all the counting observers, supervisors, assistants, staff, officials, security personnel, and all nodal officers involved in successfully conducting the entire election process.
He also expressed gratitude to the media. The returning officer, Anil Kumar Shukla, presented the victory certificate to BJP candidate Asha Nautiyal.Present at the event were Deputy Chief Election Officer Mukta Mishra, Chief Development Officer Dr. G.S. Khati, Additional District Magistrate/Deputy District Election Officer Shyam Singh Rana, Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Rudraprayag Aashish Chandra Ghildiyal, District Tourism Officer Rahul Chaube, District Program Officer Akhilesh Mishra, along with other relevant officials and staff.
