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By-polls for five out of six vacant assembly seats in Gujarat on May 7
The by-elections will be held for the five vacant assembly seats in the state namely Khambhat, Vijapur, Waghodia, Porbandar, and Manavadar
The by-election for five out of six vacant assembly seats in Gujarat is scheduled for May 7, coinciding with the third round of the seven-phase general election, the chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar announced on Saturday.
The Election Commission has announced the full schedule along with the dates of the Lok Sabha elections.
Beginning April 19, the first phase will kick off, culminating with the seventh phase on June 1.
In Gujarat, all 26 Lok Sabha seats will go to polls in a single phase on May 7.
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During the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls, the voting process for Gujarat’s by-elections for five seats will be held.
The by-elections will be held for the five vacant assembly seats in the state namely Khambhat, Vijapur, Waghodia, Porbandar, and Manavadar.
Currently, the Gujarat Assembly has 176 sitting MLAs, with six vacant seats.
In the Gujarat assembly elections held in 2022, BJP retained power for the seventh straight term, winning 156 out of the total 182 Assembly seats.
The Congress bagged 17 seats, five seats went to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), three seats were won by independents and one by Samajwadi Party (SP).
The sitting MLAs who resigned necessitating by-elections include Arvind Ladani from Manavadar, Chirag Patel from Khambhat, CJ Chavda from Vijapur and Arjun Modhwadia from Porbander.
They all were fielded by the Congress in 2022 assembly elections but have resigned in the past few months and joined the BJP.
Apart from them, independent MLA Dharmendrasinh Vaghela resigned from the Waghodia seat.
Former AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani was the first among these six to resign from the assembly constituency in December and join the BJP.
The CEC has however not announced by polls for the Visavadar seat from where Bhayani resigned.
Chief electoral officer P Bharathi stated over the phone that they are currently checking the reasons behind the delay in announcing the by-polls for the Visavadar seat.
“We don’t know why the CEC has not announced by-elections for Visavadar seat. The high court petition challenging Bhayani’s victory has no relevance as the winning candidate has resigned and no longer holds the post. The CEC today said that till date whatever seats are vacant, elections are declared on all those seats. Hence, the name of Visavadar assembly constituency missing does not make much sense especially when there is no order of the high court restraining any election on that seat. Visavadar was one of the first seats out of the six to fall vacant for by polls in Gujarat,” said Punit Juneja, state spokesperson for AAP.
A petition has been filed in the Gujarat high court by BJP candidate Harshad Ribadiya, who lost in the 2022 assembly polls to Bhayani, challenging his opponent’s victory.
