Rajnandgaon, Apr 15 (PTI) The counting of votes in the Khairagarh Assembly bypoll in Chhattisgarh held on April 12 will be taken up on Saturday, an official said.

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The process will begin at 8am in a godown of the State Seeds Development Corporation where a large posse of security personnel, including from paramilitary units, have been deployed, the district official said.

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The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) MLA Devvrat Singh.

The voter turnout was 77.88 per cent, and postal ballots will be counted first followed by the EVM ones, the official said, adding that the process will go on for 21 rounds on 14 tables.

While 10 candidates were in the fray, political observers earlier said the fight was between the ruling Congress' Yashoda Verma and the BJP's Komal Janghel as the JCC(J) has lost considerable clout since the death of its founder and former chief minister Ajit Jogi in 2020.

Incidentally, the Congress has promised to make Khairagarh a district if it wins the bypoll.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)