In 2009 Lok Sabha polls, 114 candidates lost by margin less than 3%

NEW DELHI: Losing an election is often a not to pleasant experience for a candidate.

But what if the margin is wafer thin? 114 candidates in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls lost by margins as less as 3 per cent.

19 of such candidates were from Uttar Pradesh which sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha. While Andhra Pradesh saw 11 such contests, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka witnessed nine such electoral battles each.

According to data available with the Election Commission, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan) witnessed Congress' Namo Narain Meena winning by a margin of 0.04 per cent. He defeated Kirori Singh Bainsla of BJP. While Meena bagged 46.82 per cent of the votes polled, Bainsla got 46.78 per cent.

Congress this time has fielded former cricketer Md Azharuddin from Tonk, who is the sitting MP from Moradabad.

Varanasi (UP), from where BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is contesting, saw a similar victory for Murli Manohar Joshi. He defeated don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari (BSP) by a margin of 2.59 per cent. While Joshi got 30.52 per cent votes, Ansari got 27.94 per cent. Joshi has now been fielded from Kanpur.

Takam Sanjoy (Congress) defeated BJP's Kiren Rijiju by a slender margin of 0.46 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh (West) constituency. While Sanjoy got 49.16 per cent votes, Rijiju got 48.70 per cent.

In Gujarat's Kheda Parliamentary constituency, a similar contest took place in 2009 where Dinsha Patel of Congress bagged 47.12 per cent votes, while rival Jesingbhai of BJP got 46.98 per cent. The margin was just 0.14 per cent.

In Andaman and Nicobar, Bishnupada Ray (BJP) won by a margin of 1.76 per cent votes. While he bagged 44.21 per cent votes, his rival Kuldeep Rai Sharma of Congress got 42.46 per cent.