Congress candidate Rajkumar Patel took an early lead of nearly 6500 votes against his ruling BJP rival Ramakant Bhargava at the Budhni seat of Madhya Pradesh where counting for State Assembly by poll began on Saturday morning.
The lead of the Congress came as a rare phenomenon, as the BJP has always led from the beginning in every election on the seat in the past many years when former CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan contested.
The lead by Rajkumar Patel was being attributed to the fact that the initial votes that were counted till about 10 AM, were from areas dominated by the Kirar community. Patel is also a Kirar.