Guj bypolls: 51% turnout in six assembly seats till 5pm

As the polling for byelections to six Assembly seats in Gujarat came to an end at 6 pm on Monday, a moderate 51 per cent average voter turnout had been registered between 8 am and 5 pm.

Final polling figures were yet to be collated, said an election official.

The bypolls were held for Tharad in Banaskantha district, Radhanpur in Patan, Kheralu in Mehsana, Bayad in Arvalli, Amraiwadi in Ahmedabad and Lunawada in Mahisagar district.

Voting took place from 8 am till 6 pm.

By 5 pm, Tharad recorded the highest turnout of 65.47 percent, while Amraiwadi, an urban seat of Ahmedabad city, recorded the lowest 31.53 per cent polling.

While Radhanpur recorded 59.87 per cent turnout, it was 57.81 per cent in Bayad, followed by Lunawada (47.54 per cent) and Kheralu( 42.81 per cent).

No untoward incident was recorded across the six seats, officials said. Byelections were necessitated in Radhanpur and Bayad due to the resignations of sitting Congress MLAs Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Zala, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP.

The ruling party has fielded both of them from their respective seats in the byelection.

Bypolls became necessary in Tharad, Lunawada, Kheralu and Amraiwadi after the respective BJP MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha.

The BJP has fielded Jivrajbhai Patel in Tharad, Jignesh Sevak in Lunawada, Ajmalbhai Thakor in Kheralu and Jagdish Patel in Amraiwadi.

The Congress has nominated Gulabsinh Rajput from Tharad, Raghubhai Desai from Radhanpur, Babuji Thakor from Kheralu, Jasubhai Patel from Bayad, Dharmendra Patel from Amraiwadi and Gulabsinh Chauhan from Lunawada.