Gujarat bypolls: Counting begins for nine Assembly, one Lok Sabha seat

AHMEDABAD: Counting of votes in bypolls to nine Assembly and one Lok Sabha seat of Gujarat began this morning where stakes are high for BJP which holds all the ten seats.

A total of 45 candidates are in the fray for nine Assembly seats and four for the Vadodara Lok Sabha seat, vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Assembly seats are Maninagar (Ahmedabad), Deesa (Banaskantha), Tankara (Rajkot), Khambhaila (Devboomi Dwarka), Mangrol (Junagadh), Talaja (Bhavnagar), Anand (Anand), Matar (Kheda) and Limkheda (Dahod).

A total of 50.95 per cent voter turn out was recorded in the by-elections held on September 13.

Gujarat BJP is expecting a thumping victory by winning all the seats. Modi also will be here today afternoon.

The bypolls were necessitated in the nine seats as sitting BJP MLAs resigned after winning the Lok Sabha polls, including Modi, who vacated the Maninagar seat as the sitting MLA.

Though all these seats were earlier held by BJP, Congress is hoping to make dent this time by leveraging the absence of Modi in Gujarat.