Congress Leads in Uttarakhand Bypolls

Congress candidates for the Badrinath and Manglaur assembly bypolls in Uttarakhand were leading in both seats as of Saturday. Qazi Nizamuddin is ahead in Manglaur by 422 votes, while Lakhpat Singh Butola leads in Badrinath by 5,095 votes. The counting began on Wednesday at 8 am.

Congress candidates for the Badrinath and Manglaur assembly bypolls in Uttarakhand were leading in both seats on Saturday, officials said. The counting of votes for the by-elections in the two assembly constituencies, held on Wednesday, began at 8 am.

In the tenth round of counting, Congress' Qazi Nizamuddin was leading by a slender margin of 422 votes over his nearest rival, BJP's Kartar Singh Bhadana, in Manglaur. BSP's Ubaidur Rahman, who was behind Nizamuddin at the second spot in the initial rounds of counting, is now trailing at the third spot in the seat.

The seat was with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) but fell vacant after Rahman's father and sitting MLA Sarwat Karim Ansari died in October 2023.

In the Badrinath assembly seat, Congress' Lakhpat Singh Butola was also leading by 5,095 votes against BJP's Rajendra Bhandari in the 15th round. The seat fell vacant after Bhandari resigned from the Congress and the state assembly to join the BJP just before the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.