AHMEDABAD: In a high-stakes political showdown, the Gujarat by-elections delivered a split verdict with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tightening its grip in Visavadar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) consolidating its dominance in Kadi.
The results, declared after intense multi-round counting, reflected voter sentiment across two politically charged constituencies and carried larger implications for both regional and national equations.
In Visavadar, AAP’s Gopal Italia scripted a decisive victory, defeating BJP’s Kirit Patel by a margin of 17,554 votes. Italia garnered 75,942 votes, while Patel trailed with 58,388. Congress nominee Nitin Ranpariya managed a distant third with just 5,501 votes, and 1,716 votes went to NOTA.
From the very first round of counting at 8 am on Monday, Italia held a steady lead, never relinquishing ground. His win signals AAP’s firm hold over the Visavadar seat — a constituency that has traditionally been a bastion of opposition politics. The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of AAP MLA Bhupat Bhayani, who switched allegiance to the BJP. Ironically, the party he defected to failed to reclaim the seat.
Visavadar’s political story has been turbulent since 2012, when former CM Keshubhai Patel quit the BJP, floated the Gujarat Parivartan Party, and won from the seat. After his resignation in 2014, Congress’s Harshad Ribadiya took over, holding the post until 2022. Bhayani, then with AAP, had snatched the seat — a feat the party has now successfully repeated.
Despite a modest 57.80% turnout, polling was largely peaceful, barring the need for re-polling in two villages — Malida and Nava Vaghaniya — on June 21. Final figures from the Election Commission revealed Italia’s tally swelling to nearly 76,000 votes after 18 rounds of counting.
Reacting to the win, Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj said, “Many wrote off AAP after Delhi. But we’ve won Ludhiana West, and now Gujarat too. This is a strong bounce-back. Those who thought Arvind Kejriwal would be sidelined — this is their answer.”
Meanwhile, in Kadi, the BJP reasserted its dominance. Rajendra Chavda secured a resounding 99,709 votes, crushing Congress rival Ramesh Chavda, who managed 60,282 votes. AAP’s Jagdish Chavda fared poorly with just 3,089 votes, while 1,701 opted for NOTA.
Rajendra Chavda led from start to finish across 22 rounds, winning with a massive 39,427-vote margin. The bypoll was held following the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki. Voter turnout here was 56.89%, according to provisional data.
“This is the victory of the Organisation and the people of Kadi,” Chavda said after the win. “The voters have endorsed the government’s way of working.”
While eight candidates contested the Kadi seat, the battle was squarely between the BJP and Congress, with AAP and smaller regional parties barely making a dent.
Notably, despite being national allies, Congress and AAP fought these bypolls independently, signalling the complexities within the INDIA bloc.
With this outcome, BJP’s tally in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly now rises to 162, strengthening its overwhelming majority in the 182-member House. The by-elections may have been local in scale, but their political reverberations stretch far beyond Gujarat’s borders.
