Congress leads in MP by-election

Bhopal, Nov 12 (IANS) Congress candidate Nilanshu Chaturvedi on Sunday afternoon led by 17,959 votes over his BJP rival as officials counted the votes polled in the by-election to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly from Chitrakoot seat.

Election Commission officials said 10 rounds of the vote count were over and nine more rounds remained.

The by-election was called after the death of Congress legislator Prem Singh. The Bharatiya Janata Party fielded Shankar Dayal Tripathi against Chaturvedi. The total number of candidates in the fray were 12 including nine independents.