Ahmedabad: Counting will take place on Wednesday for the two Lok Sabha and four Assembly seats where by-elections were held last Sunday. "Counting will start at 8 am tomorrow at four centres of Porbandar, Panchmahal, Limbadi and Banaskantha for all the seats and we are expecting results by the afternoon," Additional Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Manek said.
Compare to state Assembly elections held last December when average voter turnout recorded was at 71 per cent, this by-elections to four Assembly and two Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat did not enthuse the voters much. For Porbandar and Banaskantha Lok Sabha seats, voting was registered 30 and 37 per cent respectively. However, for the assembly seats of Limbadi, Morva Hadaf, Dhoraji and Jetpur 62 per cent, 64 per cent, 33 per cent and 45 per cent voting was recorded.
These by-elections were being considered as a litmus test for Congress party as all the six seats were held by it. On the other hand ruling BJP has been showing a confident face, more particularly for Porbandar Lok Sabha and Jetpur assembly seats, where the party has given ticket to Vithhal Radadia and his son Jayesh who defected from the Congress and had joined BJP.
Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after the death of Congress MP Mukesh Gadhvi. In the bypoll, Congress fielded his wife Krishna Gadhvi. At Morva Hadaf, the election was held to fill the vacancy caused by Congress candidate Savita Khant, who died on the day of counting of the last Assembly election in December last year. For the bypoll party has given ticket to her son Bhupendrasinh Khant.
For Limbadi assembly seat, which fell vacant after Congress MP Soma Patel, who won the seat but later resigned as MLA, party has fielded his son Satish against whom BJP has given ticket to former state minister Kiritsinh Rana. In the 182-member state Assembly, BJP has 115 MLAs, Congress 57, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) 2, Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) 2 and Independent and JD(U) one each members.
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