New Delhi: Robertsganj Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Bhupesh Chaubey’s method of seeking forgiveness from the people by holding his ears and doing sit-ups seems to have worked. Chaubey won his seat by 84,496 votes Thursday.
The BJP MLA won by a margin of 5,621 votes, with Samajwadi Party’s Avinash Kushwaha trailing him with 78,875.
Chaubey had shot to the limelight after a video of him went viral in which he was seen doing sit-ups on a stage. He was addressing a public event in a village in his constituency in eastern UP’s Sonbhadra district this February.
The MLA later clarified that he was seeking forgiveness for any mistakes he might have committed in the past five years.
A few days later, another video of him massaging oil on the legs of an elderly person went viral, which he again explained by saying that voters were like “God” and there was nothing wrong in pleasing them.
Chaubey had in December last year also gone among the public riding a cycle rickshaw.
The BJP MLA is no stranger to controversies. Last year, when cricketer Virat Kohli shared tips on how to celebrate Diwali and avoid firecrackers, Chaubey had tweeted in reply that “the nation does not like your rubbish talks”.
Of the 10 candidates who contested for the Robertsganj seat, Chaubey also had the highest number of criminal cases registered against him — two.
One case is related to voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty (IPC Sections 332, 353), and one is related to rioting (IPC Sections 147, 148, 149).
During the 2017 Assembly election in UP, Chaubey had scored a fairly easy win in Robertsganj with a margin of 40,000 votes against Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Avinash Kushwaha. The Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Sunil Kumar Singh Yadav was third in the tally with 39,336 votes.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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