The by-elections to the two high-stakes Assembly seats in Gujarat will witness a triangular contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Interestingly, the grand old party which is a constituent of the INDIA bloc and a partner of the AAP in the alliance, has decided to contest the elections solo.
The candidates of the BJP, Congress and the AAP submitted their candidature to the election authorities on Monday, the last day of filing the nominations, for the bypolls to the two constituencies — Kadi and Visavadar, scheduled to take place on June 19.
The Scheduled Caste-reserved Kadi seat fell vacant following the death of sitting BJP MLA Karsanbhai Solanki on February 4.
The Visavadar constituency fell vacant after sitting AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani quit the party in December 2023. He later joined the BJP.
According to election officials, 18 candidates, including those from national political parties, had submitted their nominations for the Kadi seat of Mehsana district, while 31 contestants entered the fray in the Visavadar seat of Junagadh district between May 26 and June 2.
The BJP has fielded Rajendra Chavda from Kadi Assembly seat and Kirit Patel from Visavadar Assembly seat for the bypolls.
Rajendra Chavda is an active member of the BJP since the 1980s and has served the party in different capacities such as President of the Mehsana taluka Scheduled Caste Cell and Secretary of party’s Mehsana district unit. He was director of the Gujarat Scheduled Caste Development Corporation from 2011 to 2017.
Kirit Patel had earlier served as the BJP’s Junagadh district president and chairman of the Junagadh APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee).
At Visavadar, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel held a roadshow in support of BJP candidate Kirit Patel and accompanied him during form submission.
In Kadi, former Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel and State Health Minister Rushikesh Patel took part in a roadshow in the support of Rajendra Chavda ahead of the nomination filing.
The Congress has announced Ramesh Chavda and Nitin Ranpariya as its candidates from Kadi and Visavadar Assembly constituencies, respectively.
Ramesh Chavda is a former Congress MLA from Kadi. He won from the seat in 2012, but lost to BJP member Karsanbhai Solanki in 2017.
Ranpariya, who has served as a member of the Junagadh district panchayat in the past and is currently president of the Bhesan taluka Congress, is fighting an assembly election for the first time in his political career.
These BJP and Congress candidates submitted their nomination papers to election officials at Kadi and Visavadar on Monday.
Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has fielded Jagdish Chavda from Kadi and Gopal Italia from Visavadar.
While Italia, a former president of the Gujarat AAP, submitted his papers on May 31, Jagdish Chavda filed his nomination on Monday.
The last day for withdrawal of nominations is June 5, while counting of votes will take place on June 23.
In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the BJP has 161 legislators, Congress 12 and AAP four, while one seat is with the Samajwadi Party and two are with independents.
