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 BJP-led Mahayuti alliance crossed the halfway mark at 10 am leading in 172 seats so far, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance is trailing with 47 seats as per trends by the Elections Commission of India.
As counting of the votes for assembly polls is underway, BJP leader Shehzad Poonawalla said that the BJP-led NDA alliance will form the government in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.
Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who made her poll debut from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, was leading in the early trends on Saturday.
As the counting of votes began for bypolls in 15 states, Congress candidate for Raipur South Assembly by-elections Akash Sharma expressed confidence that people have voted for a change.
Raja has been the leader of Opposition in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and has been party member for over 44 years.
He attributed this failure to the "wall of Article 370" in Jammu and Kashmir, declaring that "Article 370 has been buried forever."
Hitting out at the Congress after the Election Commission of India (ECI) rejected the grand old party's allegation about irregularities in recently concluded Haryana Assembly elections
The Congress on Wednesday expressed concern over what it describes as India's “precarious and challenging” economic situation under the BJP-led government, which has governed for over a decade now.
He said Congress always takes the support of lies as they never get votes based on work.
