Visavadar: The counting of votes for the Visavadar Assembly seat has concluded, with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Gopal Italia emerging victorious. AAP, which had won the seat in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections, has successfully retained it with a lead of 17,554 votes. Italia secured a total of 75,942 votes, while BJP candidate Kirit Patel received 58,388 votes. Meanwhile, Congress candidate Nitin Ranpariya, representing the main opposition party, managed to garner only 5,501 votes, and 1,716 votes were cast for NOTA.

Italia maintained his lead throughout most of the counting process, which began at 8 AM. The by-election witnessed a multi-cornered contest, though the main battle remained between AAP’s Gopal Italia and BJP’s Kirit Patel. Congress, which fielded Nitin Ranpariya, consistently remained in third place in every round.

The Visavadar bypoll was necessitated after former AAP MLA Bhupat Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. Notably, this seat has largely remained with opposition parties since 2012, when former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel quit the BJP, formed the Gujarat Parivartan Party, and won from Visavadar. He resigned in 2014 due to health reasons, triggering a by-election in which Harshad Ribadiya of the Congress emerged victorious. Ribadiya held the seat until the 2022 election, when Bhupat Bhayani, then with AAP, won the seat.

Polling was held peacefully on Thursday. According to the Election Commission of India, Visavadar recorded a voter turnout of 57.80%. However, re-polling was conducted in two villages—Malida and Nava Vaghaniya—on June 21, which also concluded without incident. DeshGujarat