Patna, Nov 06, 2022, IANS

Patna, Nov 6 (IANS) Bihar was seeing the first contest after Nitish Kumar's JD(U) moved out of alliance with the BJP and closed ranks with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The RJD was leading from the Mokama Assembly and in Gopalganj, the contest was close with the BJP candidate leading with a narrow margin.

In Mokama, the might of Bahubali leader was reflecting in the results which as per the trends were in favour of his wife and RJD candidate Neelam Devi. She is leading with 10,737 votes against BJP candidate Sonam Devi.

Neelam has bagged 35,036 votes after the 9th round while Sonam has obtained 24,299 votes.

The Mokama Assembly seat was vacant after the MLA-MLC court of Patna convicted Anant Singh in an AK 47 case in August.

In Gopalganj, the counting of votes was very slow. As per the election commission website, BJP candidate Kusum Devi was leading here against RJD candidate Mohan Prasad Gupta after the fourth round.

Kusum Devi has obtained 15,030 votes while Mohan Prasad Gupta has achieved 14,393. The fight between these two candidates was neck to neck with the RJD candidate initially leading in the first and second round. Now, he was trailing with a narrow margin of 637 votes.

The bypoll of Gopalganj took place after the demise of Kusum Devi's husband Subhash Singh, the MLA of BJP.