The by-election for the Khadia assembly seat on Monday passed off peacefully amid heavy deployment of security forces. The smallest constituency of the state witnessed around 51.89 percent voting during the election.
The BJP and the Congress, the main rivals in the election, have both claimed victory in the poll, though the results of the election would be known only after counting of votes on February 17 at Gujarat College.
The by-election was necessitated following the death of Ashok Bhatt, speaker of Gujarat assembly, who had held the Khadia seat since 1975.
Thus Khadia has long been a bastion of the BJP. The BJP tried to ensure its victory by fielding Ashok Bhatt's son, Bhushan Bhatt, in the by-election. Bhushan has been a two-time municipal councillor of Khadia ward.
The Congress had fielded Jagat Shukla who had lost to the senior Bhatt in the elections of 2002.
On Monday, the pace of voting was slow initially but it picked up gradually as the day progressed. There was heavy voting in areas like Khadia, Raipur, Manekchawk and Mandvi ni Pol with some areas witnessing a voter turnout of up to 70 %.
In other areas such as Raikhad, Khamasa, Raipur Darwaja and Dhalgarwad, the response of the voters was lukewarm with the turnout touching 50 percent by the end of the day.
There were some complaints of names missing from the voters' list. In some other cases, there were complaints of voters being assigned to the wrong booth. Voting by the minority community was average during the poll.
Out of the total of 72,237 votes in Khadia assembly constituency, 24,000 votes are from the Muslim community.
Both the Congress and the BJP displayed extraordinary interest in the by-poll. For the Congress, the election was seen as a prestige issue after the drubbing it received during the elections to the local self-government bodies last year.
The BJP saw it as a challenge. The party is concerned about holding the seat after the death of Ashok Bhatt.
