Congress candidates leading in Manglaur, Badrinath seats of Uttarakhand

Dehradun: Congress candidates for the Badrinath and Manglaur assembly bypolls in Uttarakhand were leading in both the seats on Saturday, officials said.

The counting of votes for the by-elections in the two assembly constituencies, held on Wednesday, began at 8 am.

Congress' Qazi Nizamuddin was ahead by 87,365 votes against the BJP's Kartar Singh Bhadana in the sixth round of counting in Manglaur.

BSP's Ubaidur Rahman, who was behind Nizamuddin at the second spot in the initial rounds of counting, is now trailing at the third spot in the seat.

The seat was with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) but fell vacant after Rahman's father and sitting MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari died in October 2023. In the Badrinath assembly seat, Congress' Lakhpat Singh Butola was leading by 1,935 votes against BJP's Rajendra Bhandari in the seventh round of counting.

The seat fell vacant after Bhandari resigned from the Congress and the state assembly to join the BJP just before the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.