Jasdan: The voting for Jasdan assembly seat by-poll in Gujarat would be held tomorrow.

Returning Officer Amit H Chaudhary today said that a total of 262 polling booths at 159 locations ie polling stations have been set up for the polls. There were a total of 2,32,616 electorates who would be able to cast their votes between 8 am to 5 pm tomorrow.

Chaudhary said that 72 booths at over 30 locations have been marked as sensitive. Adequate security deployment would be done for free, fair and peaceful conduct of the bypoll.

There were in all 8 candidates in the fray of whom the two main contestants were from the national parties BJP and Congress, 3 were from other registered parties and as many were independents.

BJP candidate and Gujarat Minister Kunvarji Bavaliya, a five time former MLA from this seat who was also Loksabha MP for one term, had resigned from the seat and Congress party on July 3 this year and joined the ruling party the same day. He was inducted as a minister also that day. He had alleged that Congress was ignoring senior leaders like him. The by-poll has been necessitated due to his resignation only. Congress has fielded Avsar Nakiya, who was mentored politically by Bavaliya.

Notably Jasdan is deemed as a bastion of Congress where the party had faced defeat only once. Bavaliya claims that it was because of him.
The by-poll is being seen as a war-of-prestige for both BJP and Congress. The counting of votes will be done on December 23.

Bavaliya and Nakiya both belong to majority Koli community on this seat in Rajkot district.

DeshGujarat