Gujarat bypolls: Counting for 2 LS, 4 assembly seats begins

Ahmedabad: Counting for two Lok Sabha and four state Assembly seats where bye-elections were held on Sunday is underway today. Counting has begun at four centers of Porbandar, Panchmahal, Limbadi and Banaskantha for all the seats and results are expected by the afternoon, officials said.  Early trends, during the first hour of the counting, suggest that on two Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats, BJP candidates were leading against their nearest Congress rivals. “BJP candidates are leading in two Lok Sabha seats of Porbandar and Banaskantha and three Assembly seats of Jetpur, Limbadi and Dhoraji,” a top state Election official said. For Morva Hadaf (ST) Assembly seat, counting has slowed down due to some technical glitches, he said. The bye-election are considered as a litmus test for Congress as all six seats were held by it. Both the main political parties in the state, ruling BJP and opposition Congress have expressed confidence of winning majority of seats even though this bye-elections did not enthuse the voters much. For Porbandar and Banaskantha Lok Sabha seats, 30 and 37 percent voting was registered respectively. However, for the assembly seats of Limbadi, Morva Hadaf, Dhoraji and Jetpur 62 percent, 64 percent, 33 percent and 45 percent voting was recorded. All eyes are on results of Porbandar Lok Sabha and Jetpur Assembly seats where BJP has given ticket to Vithhal Radadia and his son Jayes, respectively, who had defected from the Congress and joined BJP. On Limbadi and Morva Hadaf Assembly and Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat, Congress had fielded relatives of candidates who held those seats before the bypoll. Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MP Mukesh Gadhvi. In the bypoll Congress fielded his wife Krishna Gadhvi. At Morva Hadaf, the election was held to fill the vacancy caused by Congress candidate Savita Khant, who died on the day of counting of the assembly elections in December last year. For the bypoll, the party had given ticket to her son Bhupendrasinh Khant. The Limbadi Assembly seat fell vacant after Congress MP Soma Patel, who won the seat, later resigned as MLA. The party has fielded his son Satish against whom BJP has given ticket to former state minister Kiritsinh Rana. In the state legislative Assembly of 182 members, at present BJP has 115 MLAs, Congress 57, Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) 2, Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) 2 and Independent and JD(U) has one member each member. PTI