Gujarat: BJP wins Rajkot- West seat

Rajkot, Oct. 19: The BJP on Sunday retained the RajkotWest Assembly seat by winning the byelection with a margin of over 23,000 votes.

“BJP candidate Vijay Rupani won Rajkot- West Assembly seat by a margin of 23,740 votes at the end of the final 19th round,” deputy election officer Ketan Gandhi said here.

Mr Rupani got 81,092 votes, while Congress candidate Jayanti Kalaria managed 57,352 votes.

Interestingly, voters in the seat chose Nota ( None of the Above) as the third alternative, as 3,110 votes were polled in its favour.

NCP candidate Bhavesh Lokhil stood fourth with 1,027 votes. The remaining candidates could not cross the three- digit mark. There were nine candidates, including six independents, in fray apart from the nominees of BJP, Congress and NCP. However, the main electoral battle was between Congress and BJP.

As per the figures of the Election Commission, out of the total 2.90 lakh registered voters in the seat, 1.42 lakh exercised their franchise during the bypoll. The seat, once represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had then entered Gujarat politics, fell vacant following the resignation of sitting MLA Vaju Vala after he was appointed governor of Karnataka. The constituency has been BJP’s pocket- borough since 1990.

Gujarat chief minister Anandi Patel recently said that the Rajkot- West by- poll was an issue of prestige for BJP and had asked the party workers to work hard to retain it. — PTI