Congress wins Chitrakoot bypoll by margin of over 14,100 votes

Congress candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi secured a comfortable win with more than 14,100 votes over his nearest BJP rival Shankar Dayal Tripathi at the end of the 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 400km from here.

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

Around 65 per cent 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 fight was on between Chaturvedi and Tripathi.