total of 45 candidates are in the fray on these seats, won by the opposition Congress in the 2017 polls.
By-elections for four assembly seats will also be held on Tuesday. These seats fell vacant following the resignation of sitting Congress MLAs who later joined the ruling BJP. A total of 45 candidates are in the fray on these seats, won by the opposition Congress in the 2017 polls. Supreme Court has stayed bypoll on the Talala assembly constituency in Junagadh district.
By-elections will be held on the Assembly segments of Dhrangadhra, Manavadar, Unjha and Jamnagar (Rural) assembly constituencies. Three of the four sitting Congress MLAs who had resigned to join the BJP have been fielded by the ruling party from their respective seats. These are Jawahar Chavda (Manavadar), Asha Patel (Unjha) and Parsotam Sabariya (Dhrangadhra). The BJP has fielded another former Congress leader and ex-MLA Raghavji Patel from Jamnagar (Rural). He had joined the saffron outfit two years ago after voting against Congress leader Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha election in August 2017. The BJP had fielded Raghavji Patel from the same seat in the December 2017 assembly election, but he lost. Congress nominees on Dhrangadhra, Manavadar, Unjha and Jamnagar (Rural) are Dinesh Patel, Arvind Ladani, Kanti Patel, and Jayanti Sabhaya, respectively.
Manavadar candidate Chavda, an OBC leader from the Ahir community, had joined the BJP after resigning as MLA ahead of the Congress Working Committee meet in Gujarat March. He was soon inducted in the Vijay Rupani government as a Cabinet minister and given fisheries and tourism portfolios.
Sabariya, arrested in October last year for allegedly taking bribe from persons named accused in an irrigation scam in Morbi district, later joined the BJP, which has fielded him from Dhrangadhra, the seat he won for the Congress in 2017.
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