​​​​​​​Bhopal, August 3: Congress candidate Ghanshyam Singh won the Datia Assembly bypoll in Madhya Pradesh, defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Ashutosh Tiwari by 6,016 votes.

Singh secured 66,757 votes, while Tiwari polled 60,741 votes after the completion of counting. Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) candidate Damodar Singh Yadav finished third with 22,527 votes. Dharmendra Singh Pawar of the Right to Recall Party received 957 votes.

Counting of votes was conducted under tight security following peaceful polling on July 30, which recorded a voter turnout of 71.44 per cent. Congress had alleged misuse of power and electoral irregularities during the polling process, claims that were denied by the district administration.

Polling was held from 7 am to 6 pm across 291 polling stations, including 186 in rural areas and 105 in urban areas. A total of 21 candidates contested the bypoll. The constituency has an electorate of 2.2 lakh voters, including 1,16,088 men and 1,04,246 women.

The contest was primarily between the BJP's Ashutosh Tiwari and Congress's Ghanshyam Singh, although Damodar Singh Yadav of the Azad Samaj Party also emerged as a significant contender.

The bypoll was necessitated after the disqualification of Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti, who had won the Datia seat in the 2023 Assembly elections by a margin of over 7,500 votes. Bharti lost his Assembly membership after a Delhi court sentenced him to three years' imprisonment in a cheating case related to forged bank records for illegal interest claims between 1998 and 2011. He was later granted bail.