Gujarat by-poll results: AAP’s Gopal Italia wins Visavadar, BJP retains Kadi

The bypoll in Visavadar was necessitated by AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani’s resignation in December 2023, after which he joined the BJP

Published on: Jun 23, 2025, 13:47:08 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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Ahmedabad: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won Visavadar while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured Kadi seat in the assembly by-elections Gujarat on Monday.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Italia. (File Photo)

In Visavadar, Junagadh district, AAP’s Gopal Italia, former party state president, won by a margin of 17,581 votes against BJP’s Kirit Patel, with Congress candidate Nitin Ranpariya in third place.

The bypoll was necessitated by AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani’s resignation in December 2023, after which he joined the BJP, reducing AAP’s Gujarat assembly seats to four (Dediapada, Jamjodhpur, Botad, Gariadhar).

Visavadar, historically a BJP stronghold under former chief minister Keshubhai Patel, shifted to AAP in 2022, making this a critical battle for AAP to reclaim its foothold.

Visavadar has 2,61,052 registered voters (1,35,597 males, 1,25,451 females, four third-gender), while Kadi has 2,89,746 voters (1,49,719 males, 1,40,023 females, four third-gender).

In Kadi, a Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency in Mehsana district, BJP candidate Rajendra Chavda won with a margin of 38,904 votes against Congress candidate Ramesh Chavda. The bypoll followed the death of BJP MLA Karsanbhai Solanki in February 2025. Kadi has long been a BJP bastion, and the party aims to retain its dominance, while Congress seeks to capitalise on local dynamics.

Voter turnout was 56.57% in Visavadar and 57.90% in Kadi.

In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, before the by-poll results, BJP held 161 seats, Congress 12 (down from 17 due to defections and Geniben Thakor’s Lok Sabha win), AAP four, Samajwadi Party one, and two Independents.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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