Gandhinagar: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat has increased its strength in the 182-seat State Assembly from 156 to 161 seats, giving it control of 88.44% of the seats. This change comes after five members, who won by-polls as BJP candidates, took their oaths today. The ceremony was administered by Speaker Shankar Chaudhary and attended by State Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel.

The newly sworn-in members are:

• Arjun Modhwadia from Porbandar
• Arvind Ladani from Manavadar
• Dharmendrasinh Jadeja from Waghodiya
• Chirag Patel from Khambhat
• C.J. Chavda from Vijapur

Modhwadia, Ladani, Patel, and Chavda were originally Congress MLAs who resigned and joined the BJP, while Dharmendrasinh Jadeja was an independent MLA who also resigned and joined the BJP. The by-polls for these seats were held alongside the general election of the Lok Sabha, and the BJP won all five seats.

The next by-poll for the State Assembly seat will be in Visavdar, which is vacant due to the resignation of an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA who has joined the BJP. The by-poll date for Visavdar has not yet been announced due to an ongoing court case.

There’s also another way to look at the BJP’s fresh strength in the State assembly. While one seat of Visavdar is vacant, the other seat of Wav assembly seat is going to be vacant due to victory of Congress MLA Geniben Thakor in Lok Sabha polls. So out of 180 occupied seat, BJP has 161, meaning effectively 90 percent seats with the party at present.DeshGujarat