BJP clean sweeps Gujarat bypolls

The ruling BJP has swept all the six seats -- two Lok Sabha and four assembly -- which were previously occupied by the Congress party in the by-elections held in Gujarat.

The ruling BJP has swept all the six seats - two Lok Sabha and four assembly - which were previously occupied by the Congress party in the by-elections held in Gujarat.

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The ruling party's spectacular performance in the bypolls has once again delivered a crushing defeat to the opposition party, which is yet to overcome its drubbing in the assembly polls held last December.

The bypolls were held for two parliamentary seats - Porbandar and Banaskantha and four assembly seats - Limbadi, Jetpur, Dhoraji and tribal reserved Morvahadaf in Godhara district.

Low key campaigning and low turnout had marked the polls held in the background of severe drought in more than half of the state.

The Porbandar seat was won by BJP's Vithalbhai Radadia, who was caught brandishing his gun at a toll booth last year when he was a Congress MP and later crossed over to BJP. His son Jayesh Radadia also won Jetpur assembly seat.

Limbadi assembly seat was claimed once again by Kiritsinh Rana, who had lost the assembly polls in December to Congress MP Somabhai Patel. After Somabhai resigned as MLA to retain his Lok Sabha seat, the Congress fielded Somabhai's son Satish, who could not claim it.

The tribal reserved Morvahadaf, which went to bypoll following the death of Savitaben Khant, was wrested by the BJP's Nimishaben Suthar. The Congress had fielded Khant’s son this time.

While the results of the bypolls have once again established the supremacy of the BJP, which has been ruling the state uninterrupted since 1998 under the leadership of chief minister Narendra Modi, it has exposed the opposition party’s lack of organisational and mass support.