AHMEDABAD: A total 102 nominations were found valid for bypolls to eight Gujarat Assembly seats scheduled for November 3, officials said on Sunday.
Nomination forms of 33 candidates were rejected out of a total 135 received in a scrutiny carried out on Saturday,, though the final number of contestants would be known after last date of withdrawal on October 19, a release from the state chief electoral office said.
As of now, Morbi leads with 20 candidates, followed by Abdasa with 19, Limbdi 14, Gadhada 13, Dhari 12, Karjan 11, Dang nine and Kaprada four, it added.
Apart from candidates of BJP and Congress, nominations of 75 Independents and those from lesser known outfits like Bahujan Mukti Party, Bharatiya Jana Parishad, Bahujan Maha Party, Vyavastha Parivartan Party, Yuva Jan Jagruti Party, Rashtravadi Jan Chetna Party etc have been validated, it said.
The BJP's Pradyumnsinh Jadeja and Congress' Shantilal Shendhani are main contestants from Abdasa, while the fight is between BJP's Kiritsinh Rana and Congress' Chetan Khachar in Limbdi, and in Morbi, BJP's Brijesh Merja is pitted against Congress' Jayantilal Patel.
The ruling BJP has fielded Jaysukhbhai Kakadiya, Atmaram Parmar, Akshay Patel, Vijay Patel and Jitu Chaudhary from Dhari, Gadhada (SC), Karjan, Dang (ST) and Kaprada (ST) against Congress' Suresh Kotadiya, Mohan Solanki, Kiritsinh Jadeja, Suryakant Gavit and Babubhai Patel respectively.
The Bharatiya Tribal Party of Chhotu Vasava has fielded Mahendra Vasava and Babubhai Gavit from Karjan and Dang respectively.
All five Congress MLAs who joined the BJP earlier this year after resigning as legislators have been fielded by the latter for bypolls in Abdasa, Morbi, Dhari, Karjan and Kaprada.
The counting of votes will be held on November 10.