india

Updated: Oct 24, 2019 11:25 IST

Senior Congress leader Kantilal Bhuria was on Thursday leading by 4755 votes against his nearest rival BJP’s Bhanu Bhuria after the sixth round of counting in the by-poll to Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua assembly seat.

Polling to the Jhabua seat was held on October 21 as the 69-year-old Kantilal Bhuria and Bhanu Bhuria, 37, contested the by-poll.

It may prove a major setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party, if the ruling Congress manages to snatch the seat from the opposition.

Follow assembly election results 2019 live updates here.

The BJP has been accusing the government of being in minority in the state assembly since Congress with 114 MLAs formed its government in December last year with the support of seven MLAs including four Independent, two BSP and one SP MLAs.

In the 230-member state assembly, the required majority mark is 116.

Kantilal Bhuria has been a five-term member of Parliament and was a minister in the UPA-2 government. He was also a member of the state assembly from 1980 to 1997 and a minister in the then Digvijaya Singh government.

Kantilal Bhuria lost the Lok Sabha election this year on Congress ticket from Ratlam parliamentary constituency (known as Jhabua seat prior to delimitation in 2008) to the BJP’s GS Damor.

The Jhabua assembly seat fell vacant after Damor’s election to the Lok Sabha.

Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s (BJYM) Jhabua unit president Bhanu Bhuria contested the state assembly election for the first time. He comes from a political family and his father Balu Bhuria has been a local Congress leader.

Both the parties have expressed confidence their candidates will win the election.