Ahmedabad, Jul 12 (PTI) The Congress on Sunday named senior Gujarat leader Bhikhabhai Rabari as its candidate for the July 30 by-election to the Manjalpur assembly constituency in Vadodara against the BJP’s Satish Govindbhai Patel.
“The Congress president Shri Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the candidature of Bhikhabhai Rabari as Congress candidate for the ensuing by-election to the Gujarat Legislative Assembly from Manjalpur Constituency,” the All India Congress Committee (AICC) said in a communication.
Rabari, a senior leader from Vadodara, is currently the vice president of the Gujarat Congress. He had also served as a minister in the Madhavsinh Solanki government in the 1990s.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on July 10 announced former Vadodara Municipal Corporation councillor Satish Govindbhai Patel as its candidate for the bypoll, necessitated by the death of senior BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Yogesh Patel on June 2 after a prolonged illness.
Votes will be counted on August 3.
Satish Patel has been elected as a VMC councillor multiple times and has also served as chairman of the civic body’s standing committee. He is a former BJP president of Vadodara district.
An eight-time BJP legislator, (late) Yogesh Patel represented the Raopura assembly constituency in Vadodara five times between 1990 and 2007 before shifting to the newly-created Manjalpur seat after delimitation.
He went on to win the Manjalpur seat in the 2012, 2017 and 2022 assembly elections, scoring eight consecutive victories in the Gujarat assembly over 36 years. PTI PJT NSK
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