Gujarat Bypolls: Election to eight Assembly seats took place November 3
Gandhinagar:
The BJP is on the verge of a clean sweep in the Gujarat bypolls, with the party leading in all eight seats for which voting took place on November 3.
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has described the party’s imminent win as “trailer for the upcoming elections”; Gujarat is scheduled to hold full Assembly elections in 2022.
The ruling party leads in Abdasa, Dangs, Dhari, Gadhada, Kaprada, Karjan, Morbi and Limbdi.
At 1.41 PM the gap between BJP and Congress candidates is more than 23,000 votes in four constituencies – Abdasa, Limbdi, Dangs and Kaprada. The lead in the Gadhada seat was also over 20,000 earlier but has since shrunk to around 15,000.
In Karjan the BJP is ahead by over 9,000 votes and in Dhara the BJP’s lead is over 8,900 votes.
The closest fight is in Morbi, where the Congress’s JJ Patel trails Brijesh Merja of the BJP by fewer than 1,500 votes. Mr Patel was actually leading in this constituency earlier today.
A total of 81 candidates contested last week’s bypolls, which were held amid strict restrictions because of the coronavirus pandemic, for which a voter turnout of 60.75 per cent was recorded.
The bypolls were necessitated after sitting Congress MLAs resigned ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections in June. The resignations of these MLAs helped the BJP win three of four seats in the Upper House.
Five of these MLAs later joined the BJP and are contesting these bypolls on the ruling party’s ticket. The five are JV Kakadia from Dhari, Mr Merja from Morbi, Jitu Chaudhary from the tribal-reserved Kaprada seat, Akshay Patel from Karajan and Mr Jadeja from Abdasa.
The BJP won 99 of the Assembly’s 182 seats in 2017 polls, with the Congress winning 77. The remaining six were split between the NCP, the Bharatiya Tribal Party and independent candidates.
With input from PTI
