Democracy can be quirky, as is evident from the results of by-elections in Khambhat, Porbandar, Manavadar, and Vijapur assembly seats in Gujarat. Funnily enough, the candidates who won the seats as BJP candidates were the same people who held the seats as Congress candidates before resigning.
Senior Congress Leader CJ Chavda contested the Vijapur in North Gujarat seat on a BJP ticket after switching sides. Arju Modhvadiya, former Gujarat Congress Chief and one of the most important leaders of Congress in Gujarat, surprised everyone when he let go of his 40-year-old association with Congress. Modhvadiya contested from the Porbandar seat.
Arvind Ladani who had won the Manavadar seat against another turncoat, Jawahar Chavda of BJP, as an INC candidate, joined BJP himself. Ladani contested Manavadar again in the by-elections. Khambhat MLA in the 2022 assembly elections, Chirag Patel, too, thought it fit to join the BJP. He was fielded by the BJP for the same seat in the by-election.
All four candidates won for the BJP in the by-election. Interestingly, all the candidates have increased their leads in their respective seats. CJ Chavda won with a lead of 56228 in 2022 on a Congress ticket. Arjun Modhvadiya and Arvind Ladani got a lead of 116808 and 31016, respectively, while Chirag Patel won with a lead of 38228 votes in the 2022 assembly elections, all on the Congress ticket.
In the by-election, CJ Chavda and Arjun Modhvadiya won with a margin of 100641 and 133163 votes, respectively, on BJP tickets. Arvind Ladani and Chirag Patel won with a margin of 82017 and 88457 votes, respectively, on BJP tickets.
Apart from the above four seats, Dharmendrasinh Vaghela won Vaghodia seat as an independent with a margin of 82108 in 2022. He also became a BJP card holder and contested the Vaghodia seat to win again with a margin of 127446 votes.
Now, the Vav seat of Banaskantha district will be vacated as Geniben Thakor, the present MLA, has won the Banaskantha parliamentary seat. The Visavadar seat, too, is vacant. In the near future, there will be re-elections for these two seats.
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