Rajkot bypoll: BJP surging ahead in initial counting

RAJKOT: BJP candidate Vijay Rupani is leading with more than 6,000 votes in the Rajkot-West Assembly seat after four rounds of counting, including postal ballots.

Rajkot-West is the lone Assembly seat in Gujarat which went for by-poll on October 15. The main contenders for the election are Rupani and Congress leader Jayanti Kalaria.

As per the figures of Election Commission, there are total 2.90 lakh registered voters in the seat, out of which 1.42 lakh exercised their franchise during the polls.

The seat fell vacant following the resignation of sitting MLA and former Assembly Speaker Vaju Vala after he was appointed Governor of Karnataka. The constituency has been held by BJP since 1990.

At one point, the seat was also represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he entered Gujarat politics and subsequently became the Chief Minister during 2001.

Recently, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandi Patel had termed the by-poll as an issue of prestige and asked the party workers to work hard to retain the seat.