With support from heavyweights like Congress MP Geniben Thakor and Gujarat Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary, and former MLA and local strongman Mavjibhai Patel contesting as an independent candidate, a total of 10 candidates are in the fray for the Vav Assembly constituency on November 13 by-election.
The Vav seat in Banaskantha was vacant after Giniben won the Lok Sabha elections earlier this year, making her the only victorious Congress candidate in the state. She defeated Rekha Chaudhary of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by over 30,000 votes.
While the by-election polls are seen as mainly a battle between Congress candidate Gulabsinh Rajput (upper caste) and BJP candidate Swarupji Thakor (OBC) The race is tight, but insiders say the ruling party is worried about Anjana Patel’s Mavjibhai cannibalizing the votes of the BJP shared among the Chaudhry community.
Mafji wields considerable influence over his Chaudhry community and was elected as a PPP MP from the Waf-Talad seat in 1990.
While there are already rumors that Shankar Chaudhary may be absent from October 4 to 8, Geniben is scheduled to start campaigning for Gulabsinh Rajput on Thursday.
The Speaker, accompanied by Congress MP Danilimda MLA Shailesh Parmar and BJP MP Mandvi MLA Aniruddh Dave as observers, will represent Gujarat at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association meeting to be held in Sydney, Australia, from November 3 to 8.
Chaudhry will attend the New Year’s ‘Sneh Milan’ event at Tharad in Banaskantha constituency on November 2.
Chetankumar Oza is the candidate of the Bharatiya Jan Parishad, also known as the BJP.
The review of candidate qualifications took place on October 28, and the deadline for withdrawal of nomination documents ended on Wednesday.
As of October 15, a total of 3,10,681 voters will cast their votes at 321 polling stations in Vav constituency.
Thakor, the BJP candidate who is an army veteran from Banaskantha, is fighting against Congress’ Geniben in the 2022 assembly elections from Vav constituency. However, Thakor lost to Giniben by 15,601 votes.
Rajput, a Kshatriya, will be contesting in a seat seen as dominated by the Thaksin Party, with both men being OBC candidates – a category that accounts for more than 18 per cent of votes cast in the constituency. Rajput won the 2019 Tallad constituency assembly election and was re-elected for one term.
The by-election is crucial for the Congress party, which lost its position as Leader of the Opposition in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections, contesting only one of the 182 seats it contested with its ally Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Won 17 seats, worst performance in the state.