INLD secretary general Abhay Singh Chautala has increased his lead over his nearest rival Gobind Kanda of the BJP, with a margin of 8,180 votes in the Ellenabad assembly constituency in Haryana.
Counting of votes for the October 30 bypoll to the Ellenabad assembly constituency in Haryana's Sirsa district started at 8 a.m. on Tuesday amid tight security arrangements.
The bypoll was necessitated after Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Singh Chautala's resignation as the MLA from the seat in January in protest against three central farm laws.
The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) candidate is leading over Kanda by a margin of 8,180 votes, according to trends available at 12:30 p.m.
Main opposition Congress' candidate Pawan Beniwal was trailing at third spot.
Out of the votes counted so far, Mr. Chautala has secured 31,838, Mr. Kanda 23,658 and Mr. Beniwal has got 13,092 votes.
There are 19 candidates in the fray, including Mr. Chautala, Congress nominee Pawan Beniwal and BJP-JJP candidate Gobind Kanda. Gobind Kanda, the brother of Haryana Lokhit Party chief and legislator Gopal Kanda, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently.
Mr. Beniwal, who had unsuccessfully contested the previous assembly polls against Mr. Chautala, recently switched over from the BJP to the Congress.
Mr. Chautala had won the Rori assembly bypoll in Sirsa district in 2000 and the 2010 bypoll from Ellenabad, when INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala vacated the seat to retain the Uchana seat in Jind district—the other constituency from which he had contested the election in 2009 and won.
In the 2010 bypoll in Ellenabad, Mr. Chautala won the seat and retained it in 2014 too. He again won from Ellenabad in the 2019 assembly polls, when he was the lone INLD MLA to enter the House.