AHMEDABAD: BJP candidate Swaroopji Thakor has the last laugh in by-polls in Vav assembly constituency in North Gujarat. Though he won the election by a thin margin of just 2300 votes, it brought great relief to him and the party. The Congress party had fielded Gulabsinh Rajput; against him was the BJP’s Swaroopji Thakor. It should have been a straight fight between the BJP and Congress had there not been BJP rebellion Mavjibhai Patel in the fray. Gulabsinh lost the election in the last two rounds. He was leading the contest with a 14,000 margin, which the BJP candidate covered in the 22nd and 23rd rounds, and won the election with a 2300 vote margin. On one hand, Congress MP Banaskantha Geniben Thakor’s political image was at stake as she had previously been elected twice from Vav constituency; she vacated the seat after getting elected to the Lok Sabha. Rajput’s defeat is a big jolt to her political career, as Rajput’s margin was washed out in the Bhaabhar area, which is the native village of Geniben. Sources from the party said Geniben underestimated the BJP’s last days strategy, where Geniben’s archrival and Gujarat Assembly speaker Shankar Chaudhary and Thakor community leader Alpesh Thakor worked day and night to woo Thakor votes from the Bhaabhar area, and it paid to the BJP. Normally, the Chief Minister doesn’t campaign in the by-elections; it’s left to the state leaders, senior ministers, and party organizations. But Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel himself had addressed three public meetings in one assembly constituency. Patel did not take by-elections lightly. Shankar Chaudhary, who had suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha because the party lost the Lok Sabha, will now rejoice and bounce back into active politics. The Vav seat would have helped the Congress increase its tally in the state assembly, which has reduced from 17 to 15, after two of its sitting MLAs, Arjun Modhwadia and C J Chavda, quit the party and got re-elected to the state assembly on BJP symbol.
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