Bypolls: 4 in fray for Vadodara Lok Sabha seat; 45 for 9 Assembly seats

AHMEDABAD: On the last day of withdrawal of nomination for the September 13 bye-elections, four candidates have remained in the fray for Vadodara Lok Sabha seat while 45 candidates will be contesting for nine Assembly seats in Gujarat.

For Vadodara seat, which was vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he decided to retain Varanasi, a straight fight is expected between Deputy Mayor Ranjan Bhatt of BJP and city Congress chief Narendra Rawat. Two Independent candidates are also in the fray.

For the nine assembly seats, 84 nominations were filed, including some by the dummy candidates, but after scrutiny and withdrawal 45 candidates were left.

All these seats -- Deesa, Tankara, Mangrol, Talaja, Maninagar (Modi's assembly constituency), Anand, Matar, Limkheda, Khambhalia -- were earlier held by BJP, and elections became necessary as the sitting MLAs were elected to Lok Sabha.

In all these places, straight fight is expected between Congress and BJP.

Counting of votes will take place on September 16.