Santukrao Hambarde Leads in Nanded Bypoll Showdown

Santukrao Hambarde of BJP leads by 839 votes in Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll over Congress' Ravindra Chavan. The bypoll is due to Vasant Chavan's death. Previous winner Pratap Patil Chikhalikar lost in 2024 to Vasant, and now contests assembly polls under NCP in Loha.

Santukrao Hambarde of the Bharatiya Janata Party holds a narrow lead of 839 votes over his Congress opponent, Ravindra Chavan, in the early stages of counting for the Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll in Maharashtra.

The bypoll, a consequence of the death of incumbent Congress MP Vasant Chavan on August 26, sees Hambarde in a direct contest with the late MP's son, Ravindra Chavan. The Congress candidate has garnered 86,771 votes, slightly trailing behind Hambarde's 87,610 votes.

Pratap Patil Chikhalikar, who secured the Nanded Lok Sabha seat for BJP in 2019 by defeating Ashok Chavan of the Congress, suffered a loss to Vasant Chavan in the 2024 elections by a margin of over 59,000 votes. Having switched allegiance to the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, Chikhalikar is currently running for the assembly in Loha, Nanded, a constituency he has previously represented as MLA twice.

(With inputs from agencies.)