Assembly bypolls: Polling underway in Gujarat’s Jasdan, Jharkhand’s Kolebira; results on Dec 23

Polling is underway for bypolls in Jasdan Assembly seat in Gujarat and Kolebira in Jharkhand. While the bypoll in Jasdan was necessitated as the sitting MLA, Kunvarji Bavaliya, parted ways with the Congress party to join the BJP, the Kolebira seat was vacated after Enos Ekka, a Jharkhand Party MLA, lost his membership following his conviction in a murder case.

Counting of votes on both seats will be conducted on December 23.

Kolibera assembly bypoll

In total five candidates are in the fray for the Kolibera assembly bypoll in Jharkhand on Thursday, officials said.

BJP's Basant Soreng, Menan Ekka of the Jharkhand Party, Congress's Naman Vixcel Kongadi, Anil Kandulna of Sengel Party and an Independent candidate, Basant Dungdung, are in the fray, they said.

Enos Ekka lost his membership after he was convicted by a trial court in a 2014 case of kidnapping and murder. The case pertained to the kidnapping of a teacher, Manoj Kumar, on November 26, 2014. Kumar's body was recovered from a spot near a school the next day.

Ekka was a minister in three governments, led by Arjun Munda, Madhu Koda and Shibu Soren respectively between 2005 and 2008.

Now his wife Menan Ekka is contesting from the seat on Jharkhand Party party ticket. She also has the backing of the JMM.

Jasdan assembly bypoll

The seat was vacated by Kunvarji Bavaliya, who won the 2017 assembly polls on a Congress ticket, but switched to the BJP in July this year. Both the Congress and the BJP sounding confident of winning the seat held by Bavaliya.

Bavaliya had quit the Congress, resigned from the assembly, and joined the ruling BJP, which immediately made him a Cabinet minister.

Bavaliya's resignation necessitated the bypoll in Jasdan, located in Rajkot district, around 200km from Ahmedabad, and he is now in the fray as the BJP candidate. 

The Congress has fielded Avsar Nakiya, a district panchayat member, from the seat where result will be announced on December 23. 

A total of 19 candidates are in the fray in Jasdan, but the main contest is likely to be between Bavaliya and Nakiya.

The BJP organised a 36km-long motorbike rally, led by its state president Jitu Vaghani, on the last day of canvassing. Bavaliya is a prominent Koli leader and is banking on support from his community, which has a large presence in the constituency, to get re-elected. The ruling party organised rallies and door-to-door campaigns in support of Bavaliya with Vaghani leading from the front in canvassing.

While Chief Minister Vijay Rupani was conspicuous by his absence on the campaign trail, his wife Anjali Rupani sought votes for Bavaliya.

Senior state Congress leaders and party's Gujarat in- charge Rajeev Satav besides a host of MLAs campaigned for Nakiya. The opposition party also brought in Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu as its star campaigner to address a gathering moments before the campaign ended at 5 pm on Tuesday.

From what appeared as a sop ahead of the bypoll, the state government on Tuesday announced a complete waiver of Rs 625 crore in unpaid electricity bills under its one-time settlement scheme for over 6 lakh people living in Gujarat's rural areas. Jasdan is largely a rural constituency. 

The Congress, however, continued to demand a loan waiver for distressed farmers in the state.

A report was sought from the state government on its announcement to waive rural electricity bills as it came two days before an Assembly by-election, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Gujarat said Wednesday.

(With PTI inputs)