Cong to prepare assessment report on Jasdan by-poll defeat

Rattled by defeat of its candidate in the just-held Jasdan assembly bypoll in Gujarat, the Congress Monday said it would take feedback from the party workers and prepare an assessment report.

Congress' Avsar Nakiya was trounced by the BJP leader and state minister Kunvarji Bavaliya by a margin of around 20,000 votes in the bypoll, results for which were announced Sunday.

Maintaining that the electoral outcome was "not on expected lines," the Congress has now decided to prepare an assessment report.

Primarily, the party leadership had blamed the ruling BJP's "state machinery and muscle power" for the deafeat of Nakiya.

"The result is not on the expected lines. Even when we fielded a candidate who was from a weak background and not largely known to the public, he managed to bag 70,000 votes for the party", Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said.

Nakiya, a district Panchayat member, had faced political heavyweight Bavaliya, a Congress turncoat, in his maiden assembly outing.

"We are analysing our defeat by consulting our party workers in Jasdan and seeking their feedback. We will prepare a two-page internal report on the same", Doshi said.

Soon after the poll outcome was announced Sunday, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Paresh Dhanani of Congress alleged that the BJP government misused the government machinery during the by-election.

Bavaliya secured 90,262 votes as against Nakiya's tally of 70,283 votes.

After winning the Jasdan seat on Congress ticket in 2017, Bavaliya crossed over to the BJP, which rewarded him with a Cabinet berth.

The bypoll was necessitated after Bavaliya resigned as an MLA.