Chitrakoot Assembly bypoll: Congress candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi leads by 17,355 votes after round 12 of counting

Bhopal: Congress candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi established a comfortable lead of more than 17,000 votes over his nearest BJP rival Shankar Dayal Tripathi at the end of the 12th round of counting in Chitrakoot Assembly bypoll in Madhya Pradesh.

The counting of votes polled in the November 9 by-election began at around 8 am amid tight security in Satna district, around 400 kilometres from Bhopal.

Representational image. AFP

Chaturvedi was leading by 17,355 ballots over Tripathi at the end of the 12th round of counting, an election official said.

Around 65 percent voting was recorded in the bypoll necessitated following the death of sitting Congress MLA Prem Singh (65).

Singh had won the assembly constituency, bordering Uttar Pradesh, in the 1998, 2003 and 2013 elections.

However, he had lost the seat to BJP's Surendra Singh Gaharwar in the 2008 polls.

Though 12 candidates contested the by-election, the main fight was between Chaturvedi and Tripathi.