AHMEDABAD: The BJP retained the Manjalpur Assembly seat in Gujarat, with its candidate Satish Patel defeating senior Congress leader Bhikha Rabari by 30,499 votes in the bypoll held on July 30.
Satish Patel secured 55,084 votes against Rabari's 24,585. The bypoll recorded a voter turnout of 37.05 per cent and was necessitated by the death of veteran BJP MLA Yogesh Patel, who had represented Manjalpur since 2012 and Raopura before that.
The result marks the BJP's first electoral victory in the constituency after the death of Yogesh Patel, popularly known as "Yogesh Kaka", who won eight consecutive Assembly elections during his 36-year political career. He represented Raopura five times between 1990 and 2007 before winning the newly created Manjalpur seat in 2012, 2017 and 2022.
The BJP fielded Satish Patel, a veteran of the cooperative sector and former chairman of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation standing committee, despite him being a resident of Chhani and not Manjalpur.
After his victory, Satish Patel said, “The voters of Manjalpur Assembly have given me the same support that they had given to Yogesh Kaka. I will take this responsibility forward.”
The Congress had fielded Bhikha Rabari, a former minister, former MLA and vice-president of the Gujarat Congress. He secured 24,585 votes.
Conceding defeat, Rabari alleged that the BJP created an atmosphere of fear during the final phase of the campaign. “The BJP created an atmosphere of fear at the last moment, because of which my voters could not come out to vote. This is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The defeat happened because the election was not conducted fairly. I will continue to serve the people,” he said.