Digvijay Chautala manages early lead in Jind assembly bypoll

Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) candidate Digvijay Singh Chautala is leading over other candidates after the first two rounds of counting on Thursday for the Jind assembly seat in Haryana.

Chautala got nearly 8,000 votes and was followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress candidates with over 6,550 and nearly 4,000 votes, respectively.

Congress national spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala was trailing at the third position after the first two rounds.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which had won the seat in the last two elections, was trailing in the ffifth position with over 1,350 votes, behind the Loktantar Suraksha Party (LSP) which had over 1,750 votes.

Voting for the bye-election took place on January 28 with nearly 76 per cent of the 1.72 lakh voters exercising their franchise in the multi-cornered contest.

The test was for all four major parties in the fray -- the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, INLD and the newly launched JJP as both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were to be held later in 2019.

Apart from Chautala and Surjewala, the fate of Krishan Lal Middha (BJP) and Umed Singh (INLD) will also be decided.

The bye-election was necessitated after the death of two-time INLD legislator Hari Chand Middha, whose son is in the fray on a BJP ticket.

--IANS

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