Rajasthan: Congress candidate leads in Anta bypolls

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Congress candidate Pramod Jain Bhaya was leading with a margin of 614 votes after two rounds of counting in the Anta assembly constituency in Rajasthan's Baran district.

Independent candidate Naresh Meena was trailing, while the BJP candidate, Morpal Saman, was in the third position.

The counting will be held in 20 rounds, according to officials.

The postal ballots were being counted first, followed by votes cast through the electronic voting machines.

The result is expected by Friday afternoon.

A total of 15 candidates are in the fray for the seat.

The constituency recorded a voter turnout of 80.21 per cent during the polling held on November 11.

Vote counting took place in Anta constituency of Rajasthan's Baran district following the disqualification of BJP MLA Kanwar Lal Meena, who was convicted in a case dating back to 2005. He was accused of threatening a government official and was convicted in May this year. The election saw a direct contest between Congress candidate Pramod Jai Bhaya and the BJP's Morpal Suman.

Meanwhile, as counting of votes for the Jubilee Hills assembly by-election began early Friday morning, Congress leads with its candidate Naveen Yadav in early trends.

According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Congress candidate Naveen Yadav is leading with 8,911 votes in early trends. Bharat Rashtra Samithi's (BRS) Maganti Sunitha Gopinath is catching up by a close margin with 8,864 votes. Meanwhile, BJP's Deepak Reddy Lankala is trailing with 2,167 votes.

A counting centre has been set up at Kotla Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium in Hyderabad's Yousufguda.

The seat fell vacant following the demise of BRS leader Maganti Gopinath.

The assembly poll was held on November 11.

Earlier, the Jubilee Hills constituency recorded a voter turnout of 10.02 per cent.

Congress had nominated Naveen Yadav, a leader from the Backward Class (BC), as its candidate.

November 11 witnessed voting for by-elections to eight Assembly constituencies across six States and one Union Territory, as voters turned out to elect new representatives in Budgam and Nagrota in Jammu and Kashmir, Anta in Rajasthan, Ghatsila in Jharkhand, Jubilee Hills in Telangana, Tarn Taran in Punjab, Dampa in Mizoram and Nuapada in Odisha.

(With inputs from PTI)