This by-election was held due to the death of the then BJP MLA Govind Parmar (72). Parmar died on March 6 due to age-related illness. In such a situation, BJP has fielded Harshad Parmar, son of the late MLA, and this is his first major election.
Along with the recent assembly elections held in many states in the country, by-elections were also held on seven assembly seats in five states, counting of votes for these also took place on Monday. Meanwhile, Harshad Bhai Parmar of Bharatiya Janata Party won the by-election held on Umreth assembly seat in Gujarat. He defeated his nearest rival and Congress candidate Bhriguraj Singh Chauhan by 30,743 votes. The counting of votes took place amid tight security at BJVM College in Vallabh Vidyanagar in Anand.
According to the information received from the Election Commission website, a total of 23 rounds of votes were counted during the counting of votes. During this period, while the BJP candidate got 85,500 votes, the Congress candidate got only 54,757 votes. A total of six candidates contested this by-election. The remaining four candidates included three independents and one candidate from Bharatiya National Janata Dal.
Independent candidate Mahendra Bhai Natwar Bhai Parmar stood third in terms of votes, who got a total of 786 votes. After him, Bharatiya National Janata Dal candidate Maulik Vinubhai Shah got a total of 773 votes. The other two independents received 626 and 435 votes. NOTA got 2335 votes.
Other four candidates and NOTA got so many votes
Of these, one independent has got more than 750 votes, while two other independents have got more than 600 and 400 votes. Bharatiya National Janata Dal candidate got 751 votes. NOTA has got 2243 votes.
Seat vacant due to death of former MLA
This by-election took place due to the death of the then BJP MLA Govind Parmar (72). Parmar died on March 6 due to age-related illness. In such a situation, BJP has fielded Harshad Parmar, son of the late MLA, and this is his first major election. While Congress candidate Chauhan had served as the president of Umreth Taluka Panchayat for three consecutive terms between 2000 and 2015. He is currently the coordinator of the opposition Congress party in the central region of the state.
59 percent voting took place for the by-election
In the by-election held on April 23 on this assembly seat, 59.04 percent voting was recorded at 306 polling stations. Around 700 officials and staff have been assigned to count the votes, including 14 counting observers, 14 assistants and 14 micro observers, an official said. In the 2022 assembly elections, Govind Parmar had retained the Umreth seat for BJP.
