Gandhinagar: Voting for bypolls in eight Assembly seats in Gujarat was underway on Tuesday. According to the Election Commission, a voting percentage of 9.12 was registered in the first two hours of polling.
The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Gujarat office has set up a control room at Gandhinagar Sachivalaya complex for the ongoing by-elections. As per the information available, just within 2 hours of polling, which began at 7 a.m. there was an enthusiastic voter turnout.
Elections for the eight seats were necessitated due to the resignation of the Congress legislators, 5 of whom defected to the BJP.
A total of 81 candidates are fighting for the eight seats of Abdasa, Kaprada, Karjan, Gadhada, Morbi, Dhari, Limdi and Dangs.
There is a direct fight between BJP’s Kiritsinh Rana and Congress’s Chetanbhai Khachar for the Limdi seat. 14 independents are contesting for the Limdi seat as also the Akhil Bhartiya Rajarya party’s Dilipbhai Parmar is also a candidate there. The Limdi seat was vacated by Congress’s Somabhai Ganda.
BJP’s Brijesh Merja, who had resigned from this seat after leaving the Congress, is fighting Congress’s Jayantibhai Patel in Morbi. There are 12 independents in the fray, including All India Majlis-E-Inqilab-E-Millat party’s Husainbhai Bhatti, who can cut a good chunk of vote share.
Just like Morbi, there are 12 candidates in the field for the seat of Gadhada, an SC seat. Here also there is direct fight between BJP’s Atmaram Parmar and Congress’s Mohanbhai Solanki. The seat was vacated by Praveen Maru from the Congress who had defeated BJP’s Atmaram Parmar.
BJP’s J.V. Kakadiya, who resigned from the Dhari seat from the Congress, is fighting against Congress’ Surajbhai Kotadiya. There are a total of 12 candidates in the fray on this seat.
For the Abdasa seat, the Congress has fielded Shantilal Sanghani against BJP’s Pradyumansinh Jadeja, who resigned from the seat. Other than that Bahujan Mukti party’s Aqub Mutva, Bharatiya Jan Parishad party’s Ramji Maheshwari and Bahujan Maha party’s Bhimjibhai Meghwal are contesting, besides five independents.
A total of nine candidates are fighting for the Karjan seat, where five independents are in fray against BJP’s Akshay Patel, Congress’s Kiritsinh Jadeja, Rashtriya Jan Kranti party’s Dineshbhai Patel and Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP)’s Mahendra Vasava. The seat was left by Congress’ Akshay Patel.
Similar to Karjan, nine candidates are fighting for the ST seat of Dangs, where six independent candidates are fighting against BJP’s Vijaybhai Patel, Congress’s Suryakant Gavit and BTP’s Babubhai Gamit. The seat was vacated by Mangal Gavit from the Congress.
There are only four candidates contesting for the ST seat of Kaprada. Two independents are contesting against BJP’s Jeetu Chaudhary and Congress’ Babu Patel (Vartha). This seat was vacated by Congress’ Jeetu Chaudhary.
