Campaigning for six assembly bypolls in Gujarat ends

Campaigning for bypolls to six assembly seats in Gujarat ended on Saturday evening. The elections will be held on October 21 and results will be out on October 24.

Byelections will be held for Tharad, Radhanpur, Kheralu, Bayad, Amraiwadi and Lunawada seats in the BJP-ruled state. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and state BJP president Jitu Vaghani were the saffron party's main campaigners.

Several state ministers also took part in campaigning. For Congress, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani and state unit chief Amit Chavda were among those who canvassed votes for party candidates.

Byelections were necessitated in Radhanpur and Bayad following the resignations of sitting MLAs Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Zala who quit the Congress and joined the BJP. The BJP has fielded both from their respective seats in the byelection.

Elections became necessary in Tharad, Lunawada, Kheralu, and Amraiwadi after BJP MLAs of these seats were elected to the Lok Sabha. The BJP has fielded Jivrajbhai Patel in Tharad, Alpesh Thakor from Radhanpur, Ajmalbhai Thakor from Kheralu, Zala from Bayad, Jagdish Patel from Amraiwadi and Jignesh Sevak from Lunawada.

The Congress has nominated Gulabsinh Rajput from Tharad, Raghubhai Desai from Radhanpur, Babuji Thakor from Kheralu, Jasubhai Patel from Bayad, Dharmendra Patel from Amraiwadi and Gulabsinh Chauhan from Lunawada.