In a setback to the BJP, its woman minister in Madhya Pradesh Imarti Devi lost bypoll from the Dabra assembly seat on Tuesday, an election official said. Congress candidate Suresh Raje defeated Imarti Devi, considered a loyalist of BJP Rajya Sabha member Jyotiraditya
Scindia, by a margin of 7,633 votes, the official said.
The minister got 68,056 votes, while her Congress rival received 75,689 ballots, he said. BSP candidate Santosh Gaur got 4,883 votes, while 1,690 electors preferred NOTA.
Imarti Devi, along with nearly two dozens other Congress MLAs, had quit the party in March this year to join the BJP.
She was later inducted in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan cabinet and the BJP fielded her from Dabra in Gwalior district.
State Congress president Kamal Nath's item jibe at Imarti Devi during campaigning had generated a controversy and invited criticism.
The former chief minister later expressed regret over the comment.
