On March 23, even before the Election Commission could announce the date for bypolls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) declared the candidature of former party chief in the state, Gopal Italia, for the Visavadar seat. In the run-up to the election, held on June 19, the top leadership of the party – from National Convener Arvind Kejriwal to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann – arrived in the constituency in Junagadh district of Gujarat, putting their weight firmly behind Italia.

The bet clearly paid off for the party with Italia retaining the seat for the AAP after defeating Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Kirit Patel by 17,554 votes.

In Kadi, the other seat that went to bypolls, BJP’s Rajendra Chavda emerged as the winner.

Story continues below this ad

Addressing media persons after the results were declared, Italia termed the “historic” victory as that of the people of Visavadar.

“This election is a milestone one. The BJP had deployed all its might in it. But a new example has emerged before the people of Gujarat (highlighting) that the might of power, money, muscle power, administration is not what is bigger… It is the might of people’s resolve that is the biggest power in the country. The brave people of Visavadar have proved it.”

Story continues below this ad

Italia called upon the youths to come forward “to uproot the BJP from Gujarat” and to bring about change in the state.

This was Italia’s second electoral contest for a seat of Gujarat Assembly. In December 2022, he fought the election from Katargam constituency of Surat. However, he lost to the BJP’s Vinu Moradia.

With these results, the BJP’s tally in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly has risen to 162 whereas the number of AAP members has, once again, gone up to five. Congress has 12 members followed by one legislator of the Samajwadi Party. Two members are independents.

Story continues below this ad

The bypolls to the two seats were necessitated as AAP’s sitting MLA from Visavadar, Bhupendra Bhayani, had resigned in 2023 and later joined the BJP. The Kadi seat, on the other hand, had fallen vacant after the demise of the sitting MLA, BJP’s Karsan Solanki.

Among the by-elections of the two seats, the contest on Visavadar constituency was keenly watched. The AAP was seen to be fighting the election here quite aggressively, nominating Italia on the seat even before the elections were announced. AAP’s top leadership including Kejriwal, senior leader Atishi, and Punjab CM Mann had landed in Gujarat and accompanied Italia as he filed his nomination papers.

Congress had fielded Nitin Ranpariya on the seat who registered only 5,501 votes despite top party leaders such as Shaktisinh Gohil, Jignesh Mevani and Paresh Dhanani campaigning for him.

Story continues below this ad

The BJP, too, had aggressively campaigned for the Visavadar seat in an attempt to break its jinx with the constituency, which was once represented by former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel. It was way back in 2007, when the BJP’s Kanubhai Bhalala had won the Assembly election from the constituency.

The Kadi constituency also saw a three-pronged contest. Apart from the BJP’s Rajendra Chavda and the Congress’s Ramesh Chavda, AAP’s Jagdish Chavda were in the fray. While Rajendra won by a big margin of 39,452 votes, Jagdish recorded 3,090 votes.

In 2022, AAP’s Bhupendra Bhayani had defeated BJP’s Harshad Ribadiya, a Congress turncoat, in the Visavadar seat by 7,063 votes. Bhayani had registered a total of 59,147 seats.

Story continues below this ad

In the recent by-election, Italia registered much higher number of votes (75,942).

In 2022, the Kadi constituency was won by BJP’s Solanki by a margin of 28,194 votes. In the by-election, BJP has retained the seat by a higher margin of 39,452 votes.