MP mayoral polls in 5 seats: Cong, BJP leading in 2 seats each

The Congress and BJP were ahead in two mayoral seats each and an independent candidate in one seat, as per initial counting trends on Wednesday for polls in five Madhya Pradesh municipal corporations.

Counting for the second phase of urban local body elections held in the state on July 13 was under way from 9 am on Wednesday. Under the second-phase, polling was held in five municipal corporations, 40 nagar palikas and 169 nagar parishads.

The elections were held on party lines in these local bodies spread in 43 districts for the posts of mayor and corporators. As per the initial trends, Congress mayoral candidate Sharda Solanki in Morena was ahead of BJP's Mukesh Meena Jatav by a margin of 3,475 votes after the second round of counting, a poll official said.

In Rewa, Congress's Ajay Mishra Baba was leading by a margin of 2,766 votes over BJP's Praboh Vyas. In Dewas, BJP's Geeta Agrawal was ahead of Congress nominee Vinodini Vyas by 19,981 votes after the second round, the official said. Likewise, in Ratlam, BJP's Prahlad Patel was leading by 1,868 votes against Congress's Mayank Jat. In Katni, Independent candidate Preeti Suri was leading by a margin of 2,232 votes against BJP's Jyoti Dixit, the official added.