Elections 2014: Nine sitting MLAs in Gujarat win Lok Sabha polls

AHMEDABAD: Nine of the 26 victorious BJP Lok Sabha candidates in Gujarat are sitting MLAs of the party. BJP won all the 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in the home state of Narendra Modi, BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate. 24 of its candidates won by margins of one lakh-plus votes.

To maximize its tally in the state, BJP had fielded nine sitting MLAs, including Modi himself, an MLA from Maninagar Assembly seat. Congress too fielded five of its sitting MLAs, including Leader of Opposition in Assembly Shakersinh Vaghela, who represents Kapadwanj seat of Kheda. However, Vaghela and all the remaining 25 candidates bit the dust, as BJP made a clean sweep. Now, bypolls for these nine assembly seats will be necessitated.

"They have to resign from any of the post within 14 days time. When they will resign as MLAs, by-elections are required to be arranged for these seats. The elections will be held within six months from the seat becoming vacant," said A H Manek, Additional Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat.

These nine assembly seats include Maninagar (Ahmedabad), Anand, Matar(Kheda), Limkheda(Dahod), Talaja (Bhavnagar), Jam-Khambhalia (Devbhoomi Dwarka), Deesa (Banaskantha), Mangrol (Junagadh) and Tankara (Rajkot). Modi contested from Vadodara constituency and defeated Congress candidate Madhusudan Mistry by a margin of 5.70 lakh votes.