The bypoll in this seat was necessitated after the demise of MLA Devwrat Singh, who is a member of the royal family and an erstwhile Congress leader.

Raipur: Congress candidate Yashoda Nilamber Verma is currently leading with 37,810 votes against BJP candidate Komal Janghel’s 27,770 votes in the Khairagarh assembly seat. Meanwhile, Janta Congress Chhattisgarh Jogi (JCCJ) candidate Narendra Soni has managed to bag only 561 votes till now despite the party looking at sympathy votes.
The bypoll in this seat was necessitated after the demise of MLA Devwrat Singh, who is a member of the royal family and an erstwhile Congress leader. However, after quitting Congress, Singh had contested on a JCCJ ticket and this time, the party had fielded his brother-in-law Narendra Soni in order to garner sympathy votes.
However, it is Congress which seems to have understood the pulse of the voters better. With an OBC candidate in place, ahead of the bypoll, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had promised to turn Khairagarh into a district. In fact, if sources are to be believed, even as the counting is underway, officials have been asked to be present at the office on Sunday in order to start the work to turn Khairagarh into a district.
The BJP had put up a tough battle too and had fielded its star campaigners of Chhattisgarh such as former CM and senior BJP leader Raman Singh, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and cabinet minister Prahlad Patel amid a battery of other saffron party leaders.