CONGRESS WINS CHITRAKOOT SEAT BY 14,000 VOTES
BHOPAL: The 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. The saffron candidate polled 52,677 votes. The bypolls to the assembly seat, held on November 9, witnessed a voter turnout of over 65%. The results were declared on Sunday.
BHOPAL: The Congressman aged 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, BJP’s Shankar Dayal Tripathi, by a margin of 14,133 votes.
The bypolls to the assembly seat, held on November 9, witnessed a voter turnout of over 65% and the results were declared on Sunday.
The Congress also managed to improve its performance as compared to that in the 2013 assembly elections. Its candidate Prem Singh, whose demise necessitated the bypoll, had won the previous electoral contest by a margin of 10,970 votes. There were 12 candidates, including nine independents, in the fray.
The BSP, which garnered 19.55% votes in 2013 assembly elections, did not field its candidate in the bypoll and experts believe this decision went in favour of the Congress.
Chitrakoot has been a Congress bastion, and the BJP managed to emerge victorious (with a low margin of 772 votes) here just once in 2008. Nevertheless, the bypoll assumed significance in view of the Bhavantar Yojna — a first-of-its-kind scheme introduced by the state government for farmers — a couple of months ago. There has been widespread resentment ever since the scheme was launched, with farmers alleging that it has enabled traders to reduce the price of agriculture produce.
Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was in Katni to attend an event, tweeted his acceptance of the BJP’s defeat before the results were officially announced and said that the party would review the reasons behind its performance.
State Congress president Arun Yadav, on the other hand, hailed the victory as the beginning of the BJP’s end in Madhya Pradesh.