After the sole Congress woman candidate, Geni Thakor stopped BJP's streak of clean sweeps in Banaskantha Lok Sabha, the Vav Assembly seat has been lined up for polls on November 13.

As the friendly seat-sharing between Congress and AAP seems to be dropped this time, the BJP may get the advantage in the Vav seat.

Notably, during the Lok Sabha elections of April 2024, Bhavnagar and Bharuch seats were given to AAP for the contest where the party failed.

However, in the bypolls for the Vav seat, AAP is likely to field Dr Ramesh Patel as the candidate.

Congress is also likely to contest the election by ditching the seat-sharing.

This has led to a triangular contest among BJP, AAP, and Congress in the Vav Assembly seat.

With the BJP’s defeat in the Lok Sabha seat of Banaskantha, the party will leave no stone unturned to win the Vav seat.

BJP’s strategy

The BJP has declared former minister and Mehsana MLA Arjunsinh Chauhan as the prabhari (in-charge) on Wednesday for the upcoming bypolls.

A three-member committee has been appointed including Asarwa MLA Darshna Vaghela for the sense process scheduled on Thursday.

The contenders from each party for the triangular contest are —

Congress:

KP Gadhvi

Gulabsinh Rajput

Thakarshi Rabari

Mavji Patel

AAP:

Dr Rajesh Patel

BJP:

Mukesh Thakor

Shailesh Chaudhary

Swarup Thakor

Karansinh Thakor

Lalji Patel

Rajni Patel

Gajendrasinh Rana

The Vav bypolls will be held on November 13, with the results to be announced on November 23.

The seat was left vacant after former MLA Geni Thakor brought Congress its sole win during the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

In the Legislative Assembly election of 2022, Thakor defeated BJP’s Swarup Thakor with over 15,000 votes.

Before that, in the Assembly election of 2017, BJP’s Shankar Chaudhary was defeated in the fortress of Thakor.

Also read:

Bypolls for Banaskantha’s Vav Assembly seat set for Nov 13

No local elections in Gujarat for two years, likely to be held by Dec-Jan