AJSU party candidate Yashoda Devi leading in Dumri bypoll in Jharkhand

Giridih, Sep 8 (PTI) AJSU Party candidate Yashoda Devi was leading by 1,551 votes over her nearest JMM rival Bebi Devi in the by-election to the Dumri Assembly seat in Jharkhand’s Giridih district on Friday, officials said. After seven rounds of counting, the AJSU party candidate, an NDA nominee, secured 25,557 votes, while the JMM candidate, who is the INDIA bloc nominee, got 24,006 votes, they said. All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen candidate Abdul Mobin Rizvi was in the third place with 1,129 votes.

Giridih deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer Naman Priyesh Lakra told PTI that the counting of votes began at 8 am on Friday for the by-election amid tight security.

On reports of a delay of around 10 minutes, he said counting of postal ballots had started at 8 am.

The polling for the by-election was held on September 5. Of the total 2.98 lakh eligible voters, 64.84 per cent had cast their votes.

The bypoll was necessitated by the death of JMM MLA Jagarnath Mahto, the state's Education Minister, in April. He had been representing the seat since 2004.

The JMM has fielded Mahto's wife Bebi Devi as the candidate of the INDIA bloc, while the AJSU Party has nominated Yashoda Devi as the NDA candidate. PTI SAN SOM SAN RG