The ruling BJP in Gujarat suffered a major setback in its model state on Monday when Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate Gopal Italia defeated BJP candidate in by-poll on Visavadar assembly seat.
The BJP has been ruling in Gujarat for three decades and has both unmatched network till the booth level and resources.
The solace for the BJP came from Kadi assembly by-poll where its candidate Rajendra Chavda defeated Ramesh Chavda of the Congress by an impressive margin of 39,452 votes.
The opposition Congress lost deposit in Visavadar.
With these results, the BJP’s strength in the 182-member assembly gone up to 162 and AAP’s to 5. Congress has 12 MLAs, Samajwadi Party 1 and independents 2. One hundred and sixty-two seats is the highest ever majority that any party has enjoyed in Gujarat.
The by-poll in Visavadar was necessitated following the resignation of Bhupat Bhayani. He had won on AAP ticket in 2022 but later defected to the BJP.
In Kadi, BJP MLA Karsan Solanki had passed away in February, earlier this year. It is an SC reserved seat.
AAP leader and former Gujarat unit president of the party, Italia, trounced Kirit Patel of the BJP by a margin of over 17,000 votes.
Although the BJP Candidate Rajendra Chavda won convincingly with a huge margin from Kadi, the loss in Visavadar is a blow for the party as it has not been able to win from Visavadar after 2012. The seat was once represented by former chief minister of Gujarat, late Keshubhai Patel.
For the Congress, it is, as usual, time for self-introspection that the party has never been able to do or even if it does, it has never been able to rectify the mistakes in a manner that translates into electoral victories.
Losing one seat, Visavadar, does not make a difference for the BJP, but it is certainly a prestige issue for the party that has been in power in the state for three decades.
While in Kadi the right selection of candidate and campaigning by party leaders are considered to be the factors leading to retaining the seat, in Visavadar the grapevine is that Kirit Patel was not a consensus candidate. Political circles are also talking about cooperative and BJP leader Jayesh Radadiya and party leader and local Jawhar Chavda could not make their presence felt.
In sharp contrast to what happened in Visavadar, ministers Rushikesh Patel and Jagdish Panchal and former Gujarat deputy chief minister Nitin Patel remained effective in campaigning.
Italia, a firebrand politician who is known for giving controversial statements, had an edge from the very beginning. The AAP had announced his candidature much earlier and he had got nearly three months to campaign in the constituency. Though not a local candidate, he made the most of it with the support of local AAP leaders and especially state AAP president Isudan Ghadvi and Pravin Ram. In fact, on Monday, Ram could be seen carrying Italia on his shoulders to the counting centre.
The AAP candidate was already meeting people, raising voice for the farmers and even taking up the issue of eco zone in Saurashtra region. However, Kirit Patel’s promise of giving roads like Paris in the constituency damaged the saffron party’s prospects despite having a booth level network, unmatched by any political party.
Kirit Patel’s background of cooperative sector and holding organisational posts in the past did not prove of any use.
The by-polls saw top leaders of all the three parties hitting the campaign.
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