- Congress candidate Ghanshyam Singh secured 66,757 votes.
- BJP’s Ashutosh Tiwari finished second with 60,741 votes.
- Azad Samaj Party’s Damodar Yadav came third with 22,527 votes.
- Congress termed the result a “clarion call” for the 2028 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections.
GG News Bureau
Bhopal, 3rd Aug: The Congress on Monday retained Madhya Pradesh’s Datia Assembly seat, with its candidate Ghanshyam Singh defeating BJP nominee Ashutosh Tiwari by 6,016 votes in the by-election.
After 15 rounds of counting, Singh secured 66,757 votes, while Tiwari polled 60,741 votes. Azad Samaj Party candidate Damodar Yadav finished third with 22,527 votes.
The contest witnessed fluctuations during counting. At one stage, Singh had established a lead of 12,607 votes, but Tiwari narrowed the gap substantially in the final rounds.
A total of 21 candidates contested the bypoll, which recorded a voter turnout of 71.44 per cent.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari described the result as a victory for the people of Datia and a “clarion call” ahead of the 2028 Assembly elections.
Patwari claimed the verdict reflected public anger against the BJP-led state government and said Congress leaders had worked collectively to secure the victory.
Celebrations broke out at the Congress headquarters in Bhopal following the result, with party workers distributing sweets.
“This verdict marks the beginning of the end of the BJP,” Ghanshyam Singh told reporters after his victory.
Singh expressed confidence that the Congress would form the next government in Madhya Pradesh in 2028. He said promoting communal harmony, ending political vendetta and cracking down on gambling and betting rackets would be among his priorities.
The by-election was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti lost his Assembly membership following a Delhi court sentencing him to three years in prison in a cheating case in April.
In the 2023 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, Bharti had defeated former state Home Minister and BJP candidate Narottam Mishra by more than 7,700 votes.
For the bypoll, the BJP did not field Mishra and instead chose Ashutosh Tiwari, with the candidate selection witnessing differences within the party camp.
