Rutam Vora After facing a series of defections over the past few months, the Congress on Thursday got a shot in the arm as it wrested one seat from the ruling BJP and retained two seats defeating defectors Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Zala.
The by-polls results showed that people have “rejected the politics of defection”.
“These are the two candidates who had won from the same constituencies in 2017. But people rejected their untrustworthiness and politics of defection. The Congress has also gained one seat at Tharad, which is a victory for us after many years. These results show that local issues matter the most, while BJP campaign revolved around nationalism and Article 370 and all,” Shaktisinh Gohil, national spokesperson, AICC, told
The BJP had fielded “self-proclaimed” OBC leader Thakor and his close aide Zala from Radhanpur and Bayad constituencies in north Gujarat. Thakor lost to Congress’ OBC candidate Raghubhai Desai by 3,800 votes, while Zala lost to Jashubhai Patel of Congress by 743 votes.
The duo had defected from the Congress in July after cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha polls.
At Tharad in Banaskantha district, Congress’ Gulabsinh Rajput defeated BJP’s Jivrajbhai Patel by 6,372 votes.
The BJP put up a brave face and did not concede defeat. “If we look at the seat arrangement before the by-polls, out of six seats, BJP held three seats; Congress was on two, and one was independent (Lunawada). The seat tally for the BJP remains the same. On the contrary, the BJP’s vote share in the constituencies where we have lost has increased,” said Prashant Vala, media cell convenor BJP-Gujarat.
For the BJP, the urban constituency of Amraiwadi (within Ahmedabad city) was a close call, as the Congress’ Dharmendra Patel gave a tough fight to BJP’s Jagdish Patel, who managed to win by around 5,500 votes.
The BJP retained its Kheralu seat in Mehsana and won Lunawada in Mahisagar district, which was earlier held by an independent.
Overall, on the six seats, the BJP registered a vote share of 48.18 per cent, while the Congress was a close second at 43.68 per cent. About 2 per cent votes went to Nota.