Congress sees hope in Gujarat assembly by-poll; leads in 5 seats

GANDHINAGAR: Amid BJP's clean sweep of 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, Congress today got some relief in the state assembly by-election with their candidates leading on five out of seven constituencies.

Trends show that Congress' Shaktisinh Gohil from Abdasa Assembly seat, Vipul Patel from Himmatnagar, Hanubhai Bhabha from Lathi, Anand Chaudhari from Mandavi and Harshad Ribadidiya from Visavadar were leading.

While BJP's two candidates Jasha Barad from Somnath and Pankaj Mehta from Rapar were leading against their opponents in Congress.

By-polls to seven assembly constituencies were held along with Lok Sabha polls. Elections were necessitated on these seats as most of the sitting Congress MLAs had resigned and crossed over to BJP just ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

Visavadar seat fell vacant after Keshubhai Patel who had won on Gujarat Parivartan Party ticket resigned and later merged his party with BJP. His son Bharat Patel is contesting from Visavadar.

In Abdasa by-polls, Congress' candidate and former leader of opposition in state assembly got 35,200 votes while turncoat BJP leader Chhabil Patel is trailing with 25,017 votes.

BJP's Rajendra Sinh Chavda (33,766 votes) is trailing against Congress Vipul Patel (38,412 votes) with a slender margin of 4,646 in Himmatnagar Assembly seat.

While other Congress candidate Anand Chaudhari from Mandavi got lead of 3,710 votes against BJP's Hemlata Vasava.

Congress' Harshd Ribadiya is leading by nearly 8,000 votes against BJP's candidate and former chief minister Kehubhai Patel's Bharat Patel in Visavadar seat.

Visavadar was vacated by Keshubhai Patel and soon after BJP offered ticket to his son Bharat.