After trailing initially, BJP's Samadhan Autade took lead over his NCP rival in the counting being held on Sunday for the bypoll to Pandharpur-Mangalvedha Assembly seat in Maharashtra's Solapur district. "At the end of the ninth round of counting, NCP candidate Bhagirath Bhalke bagged 24,027 votes, while BJP's Autade polled 26,255 votes, taking a lead of 2,228 votes," a district election official said.

The NCP and the BJP are locked in a direct fight in the bypoll, which was necessitated following the death of NCP legislator Bharat Bhalke due to post-COVID-19 complications in November last year. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) fielded Bhagirath Bhalke, the late MLA's son, against BJP's Samadhan Autade, who had contested the 2019 Assembly elections as an Independent and the 2014 polls on the Shiv Sena ticket.