Congress defeated the ruling BJP candidate in Chitrakoot Assembly constituency where by-election was held last Thursday (09th November).

Congress, the main opposition party in the State, has thus managed to retain the seat held by party leader Prem Singh who passed away a few months back due to illness. The Assembly by-poll was conducted on 09th November (last Thursday) along with the Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh which has 68 Assembly constituencies.

65% of the electorate in Chitrakoot had exercised their franchise. Counting of votes was taken up at 0800 hrs yesterday. Right from the first round of counting, Congress candidate Neelandhu Chaturvedi defeated his nearest rival and BJP candidate Shankarlal Tripathi by a margin of over 14,000 votes. The BJP had made a determined bit to wrest the seat from Congress in a high-profile campaign.

Ten other candidates who were in the fray lost their security deposit. The election victory is seen as a huge boost to the Congress’ push towards ousting the Shivraj Singh Chauhan-led BJP Govt. in the State.