Motihari (Bihar), May 23 (PTI) Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday retained the Purvi Champaran Lok Sabha seat in Bihar for the BJP, defeating his nearest RLSP rival Akash Prasad Singh by a margin of nearly three lakh votes.

The 69-year-old member of the Narendra Modi Cabinet polled 5.78 lakh votes in the constituency, where the total number of valid votes stood at 9.77 lakh.

His rival, son of senior Congress leader Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who had defeated the BJP incumbent in 2004 fighting on an RJD ticket, polled only 1.02 lakh votes.

Upon filing his nomination papers, the minister had made an emotional appeal to the voters of his constituency, stating that it was his "last election".

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)