In Gujarat, Modhwadia, Chirag Patel among 4 Cong turncoats in BJP list of bypoll faces

The Election Commission (EC) is yet to announce the bypoll for the vacant Visavadar seat, after its MLA Bhupendra Bhayani quit the Aam Aadmi party (AAP) and joined the BJP.

Modhwadia thanked the BJP leadership for his candidature and vowed to work as a “party worker” to make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Viksit Bharat, Viksit Gujarat and Viksit Porbandar (Developed India, Developed Gujarat and Developed Porbandar)” dream a reality.

Porbandar and Manavadar were the only Congress-held Assembly seats among the seven falling under the Porbandar Lok Sabha constituency, from where the BJP has fielded Union Minister Mansukh Mandviya for the Lok Sabha polls. While four Assembly seats – Gondal, Jetpur, Dhoraji and Keshod – are held by the BJP, the Kutiyana seat is held by the Samajwadi Party (SP)’s Kandhal Jadeja, who is seen to be allied with the BJP.

“The BJP leadership has given us an opportunity to choose a strong representative for the Lok Sabha seat and we will win it by a record-breaking margin to help realise Modi’s target of winning more than 370 seats. In Gujarat, we will win all 26 seats with a margin of five lakh,” Modhwadia said on Tuesday.

Modhwadia has contested Assembly elections five times – 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017 and 2022 – of which he won three (2002, 2007 and 2022) and lost to his bete noire Babu Bokharia of the BJP in 2012 and 2017.

The other two Congress turncoats who have been fielded by the BJP are Chirag Patel from Khambhat, who joined the party on February 4 and C J Chavda from Vijapur, who switched on February 7. Vijapur was the only Congress-held seat among the the seven Assembly segments falling under the Mehsana Lok Sabha constituency, where the BJP has nominated first-timer Haribhai Patel as a candidate.

Chirag was the first Congress MLA to resign on December 19 last year. He had been associated with the BJP and following denial of a ticket he had shifted to the Congress in the 2022 Assembly polls, when he defeated sitting MLA Mahesh Raval to become the first Congress candidate to win the seat since 1990. Khambhat is one of the seven Assembly seats that fall under the Anand Lok Sabha constituency. While six are held by the BJP, one – Anklav – is held by the Congress’s Amit Chavda.

Meanwhile, Independent MLA from Waghodia, Dharamendrasinh Vaghela, who returned to the BJP in February, has been fielded from the same seat.

In 2017, Dharamendrasinh had unsuccessfully contested as a rebel candidate. Five years later, he defeated the BJP’s Ashwin Patel and rebel six-time MLA Madhu Shrivastav. The seat had been held by the BJP since 1998 after Shrivastava – who was first elected as an Independent in 1995 – joined the BJP in 1998.