BJP DEFEATS CONG CHALLENGER IN CLOSE CONTEST
Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kamlesh Shah on Saturday won the bypoll to Amarwara (ST) assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh by a margin of 3,027 votes, defeating his nearest Congress rival Dheeran Shah Invati in a close contest after 21 rounds of counting.
Shah polled 83,105 votes while Invati garnered 80,078 votes, a poll official said.
This is after 16 years that the BJP has won the Amarwara constituency after BJP’s Premnarayan Thakur had trounced GGP’s Manmohan Shah Bhati in 2008 by a thin margin of 437 votes.
Incidentally, Thakur, like Kamlesh Shah, was also a Congress turncoat.
Hailing the victory, chief minister Mohan Yadav said the people have reposed their faith in the BJP government’s “guarantee of trust”.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari, however, termed the BJP win with a slender margin a “moral defeat” of the Bharatiya Janata Party, which he said blatantly misused the state machinery and money in the conduct of the bypoll.
Amarwara (ST) assembly segment is part of the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency, the erstwhile stronghold of Congress leader Kamal Nath, which BJP wrested from his son Nakul Nath in recent Lok Sabha elections.
Devraman Bhalavi of the Gondwana Gantantra Party (GGP) finished third by bagging 28,638 votes after counting which was supposed to be concluded after 20 rounds to the 21st.
With the bypoll victory, the number of BJP MLAs in the 230-member MP assembly has increased to 163.
The Congress has 63 MLAs and Bharat Adivasi Party one, while three seats are vacant.