Patna, Jul 13 (IANS): Independent candidate Shankar Singh has won the Rupauli assembly bypoll in Purnea district with a margin of 8204 votes over JD(U) candidate Kaladhar Mandal.

He received 67,782 votes, while Mandal, who led until the sixth round of counting, got 58,578 votes.

This is the second time when an Independent candidate has defeated a JD(U) candidate in the Purnea district. Earlier, Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, as an Independent candidate, defeated Santosh Kushwaha in the recent Lok Sabha election.

RJD candidate Bima Bharti finished third with 30,114 votes. NOTA (None of the Above) received 5,675 votes, coming at fourth. Out of 11 candidates, only four garnered more than a thousand votes after the final round of counting, with Independent candidate Lalu Prasad Yadav receiving 1,418 votes.

Shankar Singh, previously associated with Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas (LJPRV), had won an assembly election on an LJP ticket. Denied a ticket by Chirag Paswan to contest for LJPRV, Singh ran as an Independent candidate in the Rupauli bypoll.

The polling was held in Rupauli on July 10. According to the Election Commission, 52.75 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise which was much lower compared to the 2020 Assembly poll when 61.19 per cent voting was recorded.

The Rupauli assembly seat fell vacant after Bima Bharti, the then JD (U) MLA resigned to contest the Lok Sabha election on the ticket of RJD. Bima Bharti lost the Lok Sabha elections.