Babulal Marandi leading by 55,948 votes

Giridih, Nov 9: Independent candidate and Jharkhand Vikash Morcha president Babulal Marandi was leading by nearly 56,000 votes over his nearest UPA candidate Manoj Yadav (Cong) as counting for the November 6 by-election to the Koderma parliamentary began today.

There were all together 14 contestants in the fray which witnessed a triangular contest among UPA, BJP and Mr Marandi who spared no pains in his bid to retain the seat.

Mr Pranab Verma (BJP) was third after the fourth round of counting.

About 57 per cent... Eds pick up suitably from line one, para three of CA 2, 'ELECTION-JHARKHAND-COUNTING'.

UNI