BJP’S Ravi Kishan wins Gorakhpur seat, defeats SP's Rambhual Nishad by 3,01,664 votes

BJP candidate and Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan Thursday won the Gorakhpur seat by defeating his nearest rival Samajwadi Party candidate Rambhual Nishad. Kishan defeated Nishad by a margin of 3,01,664 votes, the Election Commission said. Kishan polled 7,17122 votes, while Nishad got 4,15,458 votes. This was especially important for the BJP as it had lost its bastion Gorakhpur in the 2018 byelection. When the BJP announced Ravi Kishan's name many people had expressed expressed scepticism over his victory, dubbing him an outsider.

This had prompted Ravi Kishan to reveal his links with Mamkhor village in Gorakhpur with Chief Minister Adityanath too holding a number of public meetings to brighten the actor's chances and win back his bastion. Yogi Adityanath represented Gorakhpur from 1998 till becoming the chief minister of the state in 2017. He had won Gorakhpur parliamentary seat for five consecutive terms but in 2018, the BJP lost the poll with SP candidate Praveen Nishad bagging it.

Before 2019 poll, Nishad, however, quit SP and joined BJP, which fielded him as its candidate from Sant Kabir Nagar. Praveen Nishad too has been leading in Sant Kabir Nagar with a convincing margin.