Ahmedabad: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won Visavadar while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured Kadi seat in the assembly by-elections Gujarat on Monday. Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Italia. (File Photo)

In Visavadar, Junagadh district, AAP’s Gopal Italia, former party state president, won by a margin of 17,581 votes against BJP’s Kirit Patel, with Congress candidate Nitin Ranpariya in third place.

The bypoll was necessitated by AAP MLA Bhupendra Bhayani’s resignation in December 2023, after which he joined the BJP, reducing AAP’s Gujarat assembly seats to four (Dediapada, Jamjodhpur, Botad, Gariadhar).

Visavadar, historically a BJP stronghold under former chief minister Keshubhai Patel, shifted to AAP in 2022, making this a critical battle for AAP to reclaim its foothold.

Visavadar has 2,61,052 registered voters (1,35,597 males, 1,25,451 females, four third-gender), while Kadi has 2,89,746 voters (1,49,719 males, 1,40,023 females, four third-gender).

In Kadi, a Scheduled Caste-reserved constituency in Mehsana district, BJP candidate Rajendra Chavda won with a margin of 38,904 votes against Congress candidate Ramesh Chavda. The bypoll followed the death of BJP MLA Karsanbhai Solanki in February 2025. Kadi has long been a BJP bastion, and the party aims to retain its dominance, while Congress seeks to capitalise on local dynamics.

Voter turnout was 56.57% in Visavadar and 57.90% in Kadi.

In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, before the by-poll results, BJP held 161 seats, Congress 12 (down from 17 due to defections and Geniben Thakor’s Lok Sabha win), AAP four, Samajwadi Party one, and two Independents.