Gujarat bypolls: BJP leading in 7 seats, Congress in one

The bypolls were necessitated after sitting Congress MLAs resigned ahead of Rajya Sabha polls in June this year.

Ahmedabad: Candidates of the ruling BJP in Gujarat are leading in seven out of the eight Assembly constituencies for which bypolls were held while the Congress is ahead in one seat, as per the early trends of counting on Tuesday.

BJP’s Pradhumansinh Jadeja is leading by over 2,300 votes in Abdasa seat while former minister Kiritsinh Rana is ahead by 5,400 votes in Limbdi, among other candidates.

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Congress’ Jayantilal Patel is leading in Morbi constituency by a margin of more than 1,500 votes, as per the Election Commission data.

The counting began at 8 am in eight centres set up in these constituencies, an election official said.

The bypolls were necessitated after sitting Congress MLAs resigned ahead of Rajya Sabha polls in June this year.

Five of them then joined the ruling BJP, which fielded them from the same seats they had won in the 2017 elections.

A 60.75 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the bypolls held on November 3 in Abdasa (Kutch), Limbdi (Surendranagar), Morbi (Morbi district), Dhari (Amreli), Gadhada (Botad), Karjan (Vadodara), Dang (Dang district) and Kaprada (Valsad) Assembly seats.

As many as 81 candidates contested the bypolls across the eight seats.