Chitrakoot bypoll: Congress retains seat in MP, wins by over 14,000 votes

Bhopal: The Congress on Sunday won the Chitrakoot Assembly bypoll in Madhya Pradesh with its candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi defeating his nearest BJP rival Shankar Dayal Tripathi by a margin of 14,133 votes.

While Chaturvedi polled 66,810 votes, Tripathi got 52,677 votes, returning officer A P Dwivedi said.

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 Bhopal.

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.