Patna, Dec 8 (IANS): Kedar Gupta of BJP is leading against JD(U) candidate Manoj Kushwaha in Bihar's Kurhani bypoll, counting for which is underway in Muzaffarpur amid tight security, as per official trends on Thursday.

After the fourth round of counting, Kedar Gupta was ahead with 15,493 votes, while Manoj Kushwaha could garner only 14,552. The BJP candidate is leading by 941 votes.

Besides these two candidates, Nilabh Kumar of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) and Gulam Murtaza Ansari obtained 708 and 736 votes respectively in this constituency after the fourth round.

Counting of voting started at 8 a.m. Initially, the officials of the election commission counted the postal ballots and the results are expected around 2 p.m.

An election commission official said that there are 13 candidates in the fray but the main contest is between BJP candidate Kedar Gupta and JD(U) candidate Manoj Kushwaha. The counting would take place for 23 rounds.

Kurhani bypoll was held on December 5 after previous MLA Anil Sahani was held guilty in the LTC scam. The election commission had recorded 57.9 per cent voting on December 5. In the 2020 Assembly election, Anil Sahani of RJD defeated Kedar Gupta of BJP with a margin of just 712 votes.