- There is a wave of change in Gujarat, claims Arvind Kejriwal
- Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil resigns from the post
NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, AHMEDABAD, JUNE 23
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged two of the five assembly constituencies where bypolls were held. The other three seats were won by Congress-led UDF, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), respectively.
Results of bypolls to five assembly seats across four states were announced on Monday, after counting of votes began at 8 am for the constituencies where voting took place on June 19.
While the AAP’s Sanjeev Arora’s win in Punjab’s Ludhiana West, the party’s Gopal Italia defeated BJP’s Kirit Patel to bag Visavadar. BJP candidate Rajendra Chavda bagged the Kadi (SC).
Italia, a former Gujarat president of the AAP, defeated his nearest rival, BJP candidate Kirit Patel, in Visavadar in Junagadh district by a margin of 17,554 votes. The AAP candidate secured 75,942 votes, followed by Kirit Patel (58,388), while Congress candidate Nitin Ranpariya came third with just 5,501.
In the Kadi seat of Mehsana district, reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, BJP nominee Rajendra Chavda emerged victorious by a margin of 39,452 votes over his nearest rival, Ramesh Chavda of the Congress.
While Rajendra Chavda received 99,742 votes, former Congress MLA Ramesh Chavda managed to secure 60,290.
The AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal claimed that the BJP and the Congress contested together but that did not stop the AAP from winning Visavadar. “This shows that there is a direct fight between the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP in Gujarat,” he said.
The former Delhi CM said the top leadership of the Congress has become a puppet in the hands of the BJP. “Common Congress workers and local leaders want to defeat the BJP but the top leadership is sitting in the pocket of the BJP. The Aam Aadmi Party is trying to save the country and all the states from the BJP. All the good workers of Congress should join AAP,” he added.
Kejriwal said the massive victory in Punjab and Gujarat shows that the people in Punjab have faith in the ‘politics of work’ of the Aam Aadmi Party and there is a wave of change in Gujarat. “Even in the stronghold of Modi ji and BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party is now planting its flag,” he said.
AAP workers distributed laddoos in Delhi to celebrate the bypoll victories ahead of the 2027 elections.
The two remaining bypolls were held in Kerala’s Nilambur, which was bagged by Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) from CPI(M), and West Bengal’s Kaliganj was retained by Mamata’s Trinamool Congress.
Gujarat Cong president Shaktisinh Gohil resigns from the post
Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil on Monday resigned from the post, taking the moral responsibility for the defeat of party candidates in bypolls to Kadi and Visavadar assembly constituencies.
In both assembly segments, the Congress, once a formidable political force in Gujarat, put up a dismal performance, finishing a distant third in one of them.
Soon after the results were announced, Gohil put in his papers, saying the bypoll outcome was below Congress expectations.
“Since the assembly bypoll results were not as per our expectations, I have taken the moral responsibility for my party’s defeat and resigned as president of the Gujarat Congress. I have mailed my resignation letter to our national president Mallikarjun Kharge,” Gohil said at a press conference.
Till the party appoints a new GPCC chief, senior MLA and Gujarat Congress general secretary Shailesh Parmar will function as the in-charge president, informed Gohil. The 65-year-old Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat insisted he might not have made the decision to resign if the opposition party had secured at least one of the two seats that went to bypolls.
Gohil was appointed as the state Congress president in June 2023 in the run-up to the 2024 general elections.
