Samajwadi Party candidate Rambhuval Nishad has defeated his nearest rival Sheetal Pandey of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the by-election for the Kauriram Assembly seat.

Nishad won by a margin of 10,629 votes, officials said.

HE polled 52,267 votes while his BJP rival Sheetal Pandey got 41,638.

The Congress came in fifth with its candidate Shivshabhu Nishat getting just 6,115 votes.

The Bahujan Samaj Party had not fielded any candidate.

The seat had fallen vacant after a court held the earlier held null and void the earlier election.

Nishad had won the seat in the 2002 assembly election on a BSP ticket.