In a major setback to the ruling BJP in Madhya Pradesh, party candidate and state Forest Minister Ramniwas Rawat lost to his Congress rival Mukesh Malhotra by more than 7,000 votes on Saturday in the Vijaypur bypoll.
Upset by the result, the ruling BJP demanded the Election Commission to conduct a recounting of votes.
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Several senior Congress leaders congratulated Malhotra on the historic win of the Congress.
The result proved that Vijaypur continues to be a bastion of the Congress.
Rawat had won six times in a row on a Congress ticket from Vijaypur. He quit the Congress and joined the BJP during the Lok Sabha polls this year.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav inducted Rawat into the cabinet and made him the forest minister. Rawat contested these assembly bypolls on a BJP ticket.
However, he lost to Mukesh Malhotra by about 7,300 votes and the Congress won for the seventh time in a row at Vijaypur.
Former Congress minister Sajjan Singh Verma reacted to the Congress win at Vijaypur and claimed Rawat got the result for betraying the Congress
