Congress candidate Gulabsinh Rajput
Palanpur: Congress candidate Gulabsinh Rajput widened his lead by 13,978 votes over his BJP rival Swarupji Thakor after 13 rounds of counting in the by-elections to the Vav assembly seat in Gujarat's Banaskantha district.
Rajput polled 60,362 votes against Thakor's 46,384, and with 15,927 votes, independent candidate Mavji Patel was placed third at the end of the 13th round.
The counting of votes will be conducted in 23 rounds in 321 booths at the counting centre.
The bypoll was necessitated following the resignation of Congress MLA Geniben Thakor, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Banaskantha in June.
The constituency recorded a 70.55 per cent turnout in the by-election on November 13.
The Vav election was a three-cornered fight, with BJP rebel Mavji Patel giving a tough fight to Congress' Rajput and BJP's Thakor.
Seven other candidates — six independents and one from the Bharatiya Jan Parishad party — were also in the fray for the bypoll necessitated following the resignation of Congress MLA Geniben Thakor, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Banaskantha in June.
In the 2022 assembly polls, BJP's Swarupji Thakor lost from Vav seat, a Congress bastion, to opposition party candidate Geniben Thakor.
Mavji Patel (73), who comes from the dominant Chaudhary community, was suspended as BJP's primary member on Sunday for his decision to contest as an independent candidate.
The constituency has been a Congress stronghold, with Geniben Thakor winning the seat in 2017 and again in 2022.
In the general elections held earlier this year, Geniben Thakor defeated BJP's Rekhaben Chaudhary, a debutant, by more than 30,000 votes in Banaskantha, becoming the only Congress candidate to register a win in Gujarat.
At least 159 government employees were involved in the counting of votes, they said.
Also, 400 police personnel, CAPF, and SRP personnel are posted at the counting centre equipped with CCTV cameras.