Guj bypolls: Five pc voter turnout in first hour

Around five per cent voter turnout was recorded in the first hour of polling for byelections to six Assembly seats in Gujarat on Monday, an official said.

The bypolls are being held in Tharad seat of 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.

In the initial one hour, Tharad seat recorded 7.15 per cent voter turnout, Bayad-6.22 per cent, Radhanpur-5.4 per cent, Lunawada-4.94 per cent, Kheralu-4.57 per cent and Amraiwadi-3.6 per cent, an election official said.

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 by-election.

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.