Palanpur, Oct 30 (PTI) Ten candidates, including those from the Congress and the BJP, remain in the fray for the bypoll to the Vav assembly seat in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Wednesday, officials said.
Of the total 21 candidates who had submitted their nominations, five withdrew their candidature on Wednesday, the last date for opting out of the race, said Assistant Collector and Returning Officer for the bypoll, Kartik Jivani.
“Of those 21, six candidates had withdrawn their nominations earlier, while five others pulled out on Wednesday. Now, 10 candidates are left in the fray for the bypoll to be held on November 13,” said Jivani.
The Vav seat fell vacant following the resignation of sitting Congress MLA Geniben Thakor, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Banaskantha in June.
The Congress has nominated former MLA Gulabsinh Rajput, while the BJP has fielded Swaroopji Thakor, who lost to Geniben Thakor from the Vav seat in the 2022 assembly polls.
The other eight candidates in the fray include Chetan Oza of the Bharatiya Jan Parishad party and seven independents, including Mavji Patel, a BJP rebel and former MLA.
The 73-year-old Patel, who belongs to the dominant Chaudhary community, won from Vav in 1990 as the Janata Dal candidate. He then joined the opposition Congress but switched over to the ruling BJP in 2019 after being denied a ticket from the Tharad seat in 2017 assembly polls.
Patel was the Congress candidate from Tharad in Banaskantha district in the 2012 polls but lost to BJP. When he was denied a ticket in 2017 from the seat, he fought as an independent but lost to BJP candidate Parbatbhai Patel.
Banaskantha BJP president Kirtisinh Vaghela said the party will take disciplinary action against Mavji Patel for fighting as an independent candidate while being a member of the saffron outfit.
In the bypoll held in Tharad in 2019, Congress candidate Gulabsinh Rajput had defeated BJP nominee Jivraj Patel. However, Rajput lost to BJP candidate Shankar Chaudhary in 2022.
Vav has been a Congress stronghold with Geniben Thakor winning the seat in 2017 and again in 2022.
In this year’s Lok Sabha polls, Geniben Thakor defeated BJP’s Rekhaben Chaudhary, who was fighting her first election, from Banaskantha by more than 30,000 votes. She was the only Congress candidate to register a win in Gujarat in the general elections.
The Vav constituency has 3.10 lakh registered voters, including 1.61 lakh men and 1.49 lakh women, said an official release.
Counting of votes will take place on November 23. PTI COR PJT PD RSY
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