Gujarat bypolls: BJP's Kunvarji Bavaliya defeats Congress candidate Avsar Nakiya in Jasdan by 19,985 votes

Jasdan: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kunvarji Bavaliya on Sunday won in the Jasdan assembly by-poll by 19,985 votes. As counting went on, he was leading by 16,360 votes in the by-poll, ANI reported. [caption id=“attachment_5778891” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of BJP’s Kunvarji Bavaliya. News18[/caption] At the end of the 16th round of counting, Bavaliya bagged 76,963 votes, while Congress’ Avsar Nakiya was in second place with 60,565 votes. Nakiya, a Rajkot district Panchayat member who had once worked closely with Bavaliya, contested the assembly election for the first time. He conceded defeat at the end of the sixteenth round. The result of the assembly by-poll is keenly being watched by the Congress and the ruling BJP as it is being touted as a testing phase ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. It may be noted that the BJP recently conceded defeat to the Congress in three states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh. The constituency has 2.32 lakh registered voters — 1.22 lakh men and 1.09 lakh women. According to the election commission figure, till 5 pm, 1.65 lakh voters, or 71.27 percent, had exercised their franchise . The by-poll in the region was necessitated after the sitting MLA, Bavaliya, left the Congress party to join the BJP.