Two assembly seats vacant in Gujarat but by-election announced on only one, what is the reason, when will the voting take place?

Vav Assembly Seat By-Election: The Election Commission on Tuesday announced the date of by-election for Vav Assembly seat. Let us tell you that Visavadar Assembly seat of Gujarat is also vacant. Know why by-election has been announced on the same seat…

Krishna Bihari Singh PTITue, 15 Oct 2024 03:44 PM share

Two assembly seats are vacant in Gujarat. However, the Election Commission on Tuesday announced the date of by-election for only one assembly seat. The Election Commission announced the date of by-election for Vav assembly seat on 13 November. The counting of votes will take place on November 23, the same day of counting for the assembly elections of Jharkhand and Maharashtra. This seat had become vacant after the resignation of Congress’s Geniben Thakor from the MLA in June after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Banaskantha.

Vav assembly constituency is considered a stronghold of Congress. Geniben Thakor had won from this assembly seat in 2017 and 2022. In a video message, Geniben Thakor said that like in the previous elections, people of all communities will ensure the victory of Congress in this by-election too. People from all communities gave their blessings to Congress in 2017, 2022 and Lok Sabha elections. Our workers always remained in touch with the people of Vav. We will work together to ensure the victory of the Congress candidate.

Geniben Thakor, who has been MLA from this seat twice, had defeated BJP candidate Rekhaben Chaudhary, who was contesting her first election from Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat, by a margin of more than 30 thousand votes. She was the only Congress candidate to win in Gujarat. In the year 2017, Geniben Thakor had emerged as a big killer from Vav assembly seat. He had defeated senior BJP leader and current Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary. Shankar Chaudhary was the Minister of State at that time.

Visavadar assembly seat of Junagadh district of Gujarat is also vacant as MLA Bhupendra alias Bhupat Bhayani, who had won on AAP ticket, has resigned and joined BJP. Since the petitions challenging the election of Pendra alias Bhupat Bhayani are still pending in the Gujarat High Court, by-election has not been announced on this seat. The number of Congress MLAs in the 182-seat Gujarat Assembly is 12. The ruling BJP has 161 MLAs. AAP has four, SP has one and two independent MLAs.