BJP, Congress take out rally to woo Gujarat's Khadia constituency

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress are making last ditch efforts to ensure victory in the Khadia assembly by-polls scheduled for February 14. Both the parties roped in senior leaders for their road shows on Saturday.

By-election for the Khadia constituency was necessitated following the death of Ashok Bhatt, speaker of Gujarat assembly last year.

Bhatt represented Khadia as its MLA since 1975. This time, his son Bhushan is contesting from the seat. Jagat Shukla is the Congress candidate for the seat.

Both Bhatt and Shukla held road shows and rallies across the constituency on Saturday - the last day of campaigning for the by-polls.

The BJP had earlier organized two public meetings on Friday which was attended by senior  party leaders and also had the Naresh Kanodia family as its star campaigners.

The Congress, meanwhile, had Mohammad Azahruddin, MP from Hyderabad and former captain of the Indian Cricket Team and Roma Manek, Gujarati film actress as its star campaigners.
Congress president Siddharth Patel and former Leader of Opposition (LoP) Arjun Modhvadia also took part in public meetings organized in the constituency.

The BJP is posturing Ashok Bhatt and chief minister's development as its agenda. While Shukla urged the voters to give him a chance and end the dynasty rule of the Bhatt family, who according to him has not done anything for the area. He also blamed the Bhatt family for Khadia's population dropping to 40000 voters from 1.50 lakhs.

Meanwhile, some voters got to feast as the parties also provided meal as part of their campaigning.