The BJP on Tuesday retained Garoth Assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur district albeit with a reduced margin as compared to the 2013 elections.
However, this is the 15th victory of the party in the by-elections held since 2004.
The by-election for the Garoth seat was necessitated due to the death of Bharatiya Janata Party MlA Rajesh Yadav following illness.
Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Chander Singh Sisodia won the bypoll by defeating Congress' Subhash Kumar Sojatia with a margin of 12,945 votes, an election officer said. The BJP had won the seat in 2013 Assembly election by a margin of 25,755 votes, he added.
A total of 1,55,934 voters exercised their franchise in the bypoll. In the 2013 election, 1,63,892 votes were polled. Eight candidates were in the fray for the bypoll, but the main contest was between BJP's Sisodia and Congress nominee Sojatia.
The Garoth by-poll had come to the limelight recently after a voice clip of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh with a Mandsaur party worker Rajesh Choudhary had become viral on the social media. The Congress had accused the Chief Minister of violating the model code of conduct. However, in his report to the Election Commission the District Collector had given clean-chit to the Chief Minister.
Political observers feel that the victories of the BJP in the by-elections held since 2004 clearly indicate that the graph of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's popularity never came down ever since he became the Chief Minister.