BJP's Nimisha Suthar gained a lead over her nearest Congress rival Suresh Katara in the bypoll to Morva Hadaf Assembly seat in Gujarat's Panchmahal district, as per initial trends of the counting on Sunday.
The bypoll, held on April 17, was necessitated after Independent MLA Bhupendrasinh Khant was disqualified in May 2019 for submitting an invalid caste certificate.
He eventually lost an appeal in the Gujarat High Court on the issue. Khant died due to health issues in January this year.
The constituency is reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates.
Out of 15,391 votes counted in the first four rounds, Suthar bagged 11,240 votes, while Katara was trailing with 3,547 votes, as per the Election Commission's website.
Independent candidate Sushilaben Maida has so far got 243 votes, it said.
Suthar is a former MLA of the BJP from the same constituency.
The counting of votes is underway at a college in Morva Hadaf by following all COVID-19 protocols, including social distancing and proper sanitisation, officials said.
Poll agents earlier underwent RT-PCR tests for COVID- 19, as per the EC's guidelines.
