MP Congress workers celebrating Chitrakoot bypoll win

The Congress on Sunday retained Chitrakoot Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh with its candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi defeating his BJP rival Shankar Dayal Tripathi by over 14,000 votes in the bypoll.

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 here.

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.

A total of 257 polling booths with VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) machines were set up for the bypoll.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya and Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Nandkumar Chouhan had campaigned for the party candidate.

Congress chief whip in the Lok Sabha Jyotiraditya Scindia, former Union Minister Kamal Nath, Leader of Opposition in Madhya Pradesh Assembly Ajay Singh had canvassed for Chaturvedi.

Chitrakoot falls under the Vindya region of the state, comprising Rewa, Satna, and Sidhi districts, which is the home turf of Congress stalwart late Arjun Singh.

While the BJP went to the polls on the development plank, the Congress focused its campaign highlighting "corruption and misrule" in the BJP-ruled state.

(With PTI inputs)

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