Guj bypolls: average 40 pc voting till 3 pm; 51 pc in Tharad

An impressive 51.79 per cent voter turn-out was registered between 8 am and 3 pm in Tharad assembly bypoll in Gujarat on Monday, while the average turn-out across six seats in the state was 40.60 per cent.

Bypolls are being held in Tharad seat in Banaskantha district, Radhanpur in Patan, Kheralu in Mehsana, Bayad in Arvalli, Amraiwadi in Ahmedabad and Lunawada seat in Mahisagar district.

Voting began at 8 am and will end at 6 pm.

Between 8 am and 3 pm, Tharad recorded the highest turnout of 51.79 percent while Amraiwadi, an urban seat in Ahmedabad city, recorded the lowest turnout of 25.81 per cent in the same period.

While Radhanpur seat recorded 48.08 per cent turnout, it was 47.32 per cent in Bayad, followed by Lunawada (38.23 per cent) and Kheralu (32.42 per cent), state election officials said.

No untoward incident has taken place so far during the polling, they added.

Byelections were necessitated in Radhanpur and Bayad due to the resignations of sitting Congress MLAs Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Zala, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP.

The ruling party has fielded both of them from their respective seats in the byelection.

Besides, bypolls became necessary in Tharad, Lunawada, Kheralu and Amraiwadi after the BJP MLAs of these seats got elected to the Lok Sabha.

The BJP has fielded Jivrajbhai Patel in Tharad, Jignesh Sevak in Lunawada, Ajmalbhai Thakor in Kheralu and Jagdish Patel in Amraiwadi.

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.