The BJP was today leading in the Palghar Lok Sabha seat while the NCP was ahead in the Bhandara-Gondiya parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra, officials said as votes were counted for the two bypolls held earlier this week.
In Bhandara-Gondiya, NCP candidate Madhukar Kukde was leading with 51,279 votes while the BJP's Hemant Patle was at second place with 48,382 votes after the third round of counting.
In Palghar, BJP's Rajendra Gavit maintained his lead by securing 91,795 votes while Shiv Sena's Shrinivas Wanaga got 73,387 votes at the end of eight rounds of counting, officials said.
Besides, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi's nominee Baliram Jadhav got 62,187 votes, Kiran Ghala of the CPI-(M) got 35,271 while Congress' Damodar Shingda got 19,920 votes in Palghar after the end of the eighth round of counting.
The by-election in Palghar was necessitated due to the death of sitting BJP MP Chintaman Wanaga. The Bhandara-Gondiya seat was vacated after BJP's Nana Patole resigned from the party and quit his Lok Sabha membership.
The results of the two Lok Sabha bypolls in Maharashtra are important for all four major political parties - BJP, Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP - as the outcome is likely to have a bearing on their future course of action.
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The polling, held on Monday, was marred by allegations of malfunctioning in the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and the voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines.
Following the Election Commission's order, re-polling was yesterday held at 49 booths in five of the six Assembly segments in Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha constituency.
However, no re-polling was ordered in the Palghar (ST) Lok Sabha constituency.
As many as 25 candidates were in the fray for the two seats - 18 in Bhandara-Gondiya and seven in Palghar.