Gujarat: Bypolls In Visavadar, Kadi Assembly Constituencies To Be Held Today

Bypolls to the Visavadar and Kadi assembly seats in Gujarat will be held on Thursday, where the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have put up their candidates. Votes will be counted on June 23.

Eligible voters will be allowed to cast their ballots between 7 am and 8 pm, election officials said on Wednesday.

The state government has declared a public holiday in both constituencies on the voting day, said the office of Gujarat's Chief Electoral Officer.

It said votes would be cast through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at 294 polling stations in each constituency.

The Visavadar seat in Junagadh district has been lying vacant since December 2023, after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP.

While the BJP has nominated Kirit Patel for the bypoll in Visavadar, Congress has fielded Nitin Ranpariya. AAP's former Gujarat president Gopal Italia is also in the fray.

Despite its near-total dominance in the state, the BJP hasn't won the Vasavadar seat since 2007. Party leaders said they are hopeful of overcoming the 18-year jinx here. In the last assembly election in 2022, AAP's Bhupendra Bhayani had defeated BJP's Harshad Ribadiya, a Congress turncoat and former MLA, by 7,063 votes.

The Kadi seat in Mehsana district, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, has been lying vacant since February 4, following the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki.

The BJP has fielded Rajendra Chavda from Kadi, while Congress has given the ticket to Ramesh Chavda, a former MLA. Ramesh Chavda had won the seat in 2012, but lost it to BJP's Karsanbhai Solanki in 2017.

Like the Visavadar, the Kadi seat will also witness a three-way fight, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP fielding Jagdish Chavda.

In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, the BJP has 161 legislators, Congress 12 and AAP four. While one seat is with the Samajwadi Party, two are with independents.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)