70.55% voter turnout recorded in Gujarat's Vav assembly seat bypoll

Palanpur: The by-election to the Vav assembly seat in Gujarat's Banaskantha district recorded a voter turnout of 70.55 per cent, as per the data shared by poll authorities on Thursday.

Polling for the by-election was held on Wednesday.

"A total of 70.55 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the by-election to Vav seat. The final voter turnout of 70.55 per cent is slightly higher than yesterday's provisional voter turnout of 68.01 per cent," returning officer and assistant collector Kartik Jivani said.

The counting of votes will be held on November 23, he said.

The Vav seat fell vacant following the resignation of Congress MLA Geniben Thakor, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Banaskantha seat in June.

Voting took place on Wednesday between 7 am and 6 pm at 321 polling stations using EVM and VVPAT machines. The constituency has 3.10 lakh registered voters -- 1.61 lakh men and 1.49 lakh women.

Congress candidate and former MLA Gulabsinh Rajput and BJP's Swaroopji Thakor were the main contestants, but the presence of BJP rebel Mavji Patel made the bypoll a three-cornered fight.

Mavji Patel (73), who comes from the dominant Chaudhary community, was suspended as BJP's primary member on Sunday for his decision to contest as an independent candidate.

Seven other candidates -- six independents and one from the Bharatiya Jan Parishad party -- were also in the fray for the bypoll.

BJP candidate Swaroopji Thakor had lost from the seat, a Congress bastion, to opposition party candidate Geniben Thakor in the 2022 assembly polls.

The constituency has been a Congress stronghold, with Geniben winning the seat in 2017 and again in 2022.

The Vav seat has 83,000 voters of the Thakor community, 50,000 belonging to the Chaudhary community, 43,000 Dalits, 25,000 Maldhari (OBC) and 18,000 Brahmin voters.

Mavji Patel won from Vav in 1990 as the Janata Dal candidate. He then joined the opposition Congress, but switched to the ruling BJP in 2019 after being denied a ticket from Tharad seat in the 2017 assembly polls.

In the 2012 polls, Mavji Patel was the Congress candidate from Tharad seat, but lost to the BJP. After being denied a ticket in 2017 from the seat, he fought as an independent but lost to BJP candidate Parbatbhai Patel.

In the 2019 Tharad bypoll, Congress' Gulabsinh Rajput defeated BJP nominee Jivraj Patel. He, however, lost to BJP candidate Shankar Chaudhary in 2022.