Congress retains seat, wins by over 14,000 votes

Bhopal, November 12: Congress managed to retain the Chitrakoot assembly seat in a Madhya Pradesh bypoll on Sunday, with party candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi securing 66,810 votes to defeat his nearest rival Shankar Dayal Tripathi of the BJP – by a margin of 14,333 votes.

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

The bypoll, which was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Prem Singh. In the last 20 years, the Congress had only lost the seat just once in 2008, when BJP’s Surendra Singh Gaharwar defeated Singh by a slender margin of 722.

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

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