Congress retains Madhya Pradesh's Datia, BJP loses bypoll

NEW DELHI, Aug 3: The Congress on Monday retained the Datia assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh, with the party candidate Ghanshyam Singh defeating his nearest rival Ashutosh Tiwari of the BJP by 6,016 votes in the byelection marked by differences in the saffron camp over the choice of candidate.

At the end of all 15 rounds of counting, Singh secured 66,757 votes, while Tiwari polled 60,741 votes. Azad Samaj Party candidate Damodar Yadav secured third position by bagging 22,527 votes, District Election Officer and Datia District Magistrate Swapnil Wankhade told PTI.

A total of 21 candidates were in the fray, including Ghanshyam Singh and Ashutosh Tiwari.

At one point, Singh's lead of 12,607 votes over his nearest rival appeared unassailable, but the BJP nominee managed to close the gap to an extent in the last rounds.

The byelection was necessitated after a Delhi court in April this year sentenced sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti to three years' imprisonment in a cheating case, leading to the termination of his Assembly membership.�" HT