Congress candidate Dheeran Shah Invati led by around 2600 votes over the ruling BJP candidate Kamlesh Shah after 16 rounds of counting in the by poll at the Amarwara Assembly seat of Madhya Pradesh at around 1.30 pm on Wednesday.
Kamlesh Shah managed to reduce the lead, which was more than 5500 after 10 rounds of counting.
There are total 20 rounds of counting. If the lead trend continues in favour of the Congress, it would be a setback for the ruling BJP in MP.
BJP candidate Kamlesh Shah had won on a Congress ticket in the State Assembly elections of 2023. He had defeated the BJP’s Monika Manmohan Shah Batti by a margin of 25086 votes.
However, Shah, a three-time Congress MLA and close confidante of former Congress CM Kamal Nath, had quit the grand old party on 29 March and joined BJP, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Shah also resigned from his MLA membership from the State Assembly, necessitating the by-poll, which was held on 10 July.