81 candidates in fray for bypolls to eight Assembly seats in Gujarat

A total 81 candidates are in

the fray for by-elections to eight seats in Gujarat to be held on November 3, the Election Commission said on Tuesday.

By-elections in Abdasa, Limbdi, Morbi, Dhari, Gadhada, Karjan, Dang and Kaprada seats were necessitated after the sitting Congress MLAs resigned.

Monday was the last date for withdrawal of nomination forms.

Out of 102 nominations received by the EC for eight seats, 21 forms were withdrawn till Monday, leaving 81 candidates in the fray, a release from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer said.

Limbdi has the highest number of 14 candidates, while Kaprada, reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates, has the lowest number of four candidates.

As per the release, 12 candidates each are in the fray in Morbi and Gadhada seats, followed by 11 in Dhari, 10 in Abdasa, and nine each in Karjan and Dang.

Candidates of the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress are pitted against each other in all the eight seats. The Bharatiya Tribal Party has also fielded two candidates - in Dang, which is reserved for ST candidates, and Karjan.

Lesser-known outfits like the Bahujan Maha Party, Bahujan Mukti Party, Bharatiya Jana Parishad, Akhil Bharatiya Rajarya Sabha, All India Majlish-e-Inqulab-e-Millat, Rashtravadi Jana Chetna, Yuva Jan Jagruti, Vyavastha Parivartan Party, and Rashtriya Jankranti Party have also fielded one or two candidates in some of the seats.

A total of 51 independents are also in the fray.

The BJP has fielded Pradyumnsinh Jadeja (Abdasa), Kiritsinh Rana (Limbdi), Brijesh Merja (Morbi), J V Kakadiya (Dhari), Atmaram Parmar (Gadhada), Akshay Patel (Karjan), Vijay Patel (Dang) and Jitubhai Chaudhary (Kaprada).

These candidates include five former Congress MLAs who resigned from the opposition party and joined the BJP.

The Congress candidates for the bypolls are Shantilal Sendhani (Abdasa), Chetan Khachar (Limbdi), Jayantilal Patel (Morbi), Suresh Kotadiya (Dhari), Mohan Solanki (Gadhada), Kiritsinh Jadeja (Karjan), Suryakant Gavit (Dang) and Babubhai Patel (Kaprada).