Chhattisgarh: Congress leading in Bhanupratappur Assembly bypoll

Kanker: Congress candidate Savitri Mandavi was leading by a margin of more than 14,000 votes over her nearest rival in the Bhanupratappur Assembly bypoll in Chhattisgarh, where counting was taken up on Thursday morning, officials said.

As per the early trends, Mandavi was leading by a margin of 14,418 votes against Brahmanand Netam of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), an election official said. Mandavi has so far secured 30,196 votes, while Netam got 15,778 votes after nine rounds of counting, he said.

Akbar Ram Korram, who is contesting as an independent, is at the third position with 15,227 votes, he added.

A voter turnout of 71.74 per cent was recorded in the bypoll held on December 5 for the seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates and located in the Maoist-affected Kanker district.

"The counting of votes began at 8 am at the Bhanu Pratap Dev Government PG College, Kanker where an adequate number of security personnel have been deployed," the poll official said. The entire counting process will be completed in 19 rounds.

The Sarva Adivasi Samaj, an umbrella body of tribal communities in Bastar, has fielded Korram, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer.

In the 2018 Assembly elections, Congress's Manoj Singh Mandavi had defeated BJP's Deo Lal Dugga by a margin of 26,693 to win the Bhanupratappur seat.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA and deputy speaker of Assembly Manoj Singh Mandavi on October 16. The Congress had fielded the late legislator's wife for the bypoll.