AAP candidate Gopal Italia won the bypoll in Gujarat’s Visavadar seat, while the BJP was set to retain Kadi seat as the counting for bypolls to the two constituencies in Gujarat was nearing conclusion on Monday, officials said.

Italia received 65,295 votes, and the BJP candidate Kirit Patel was behind him with 51,222 votes after 18 rounds, as per the latest data shared by the Election Commission.

Delhi AAP president Saurabh Bharadwaj said this is a massive victory for AAP. P”olitical analysts were saying that AAP would finish as a party. But after the loss in Delhi, AAP is winning Ludhiana West (Assembly by-elections) and we are also winning a by-election in AAP’s stronghold of Gujarat by a huge margin. I think this is a major victory. A few people used to say that Arvind Kejriwal would be sidelined in national politics; this is a terrific bounce back,” Bharadwaj added.

Bypolls In Gujarat

The bypolls, held on June 19, witnessed 57.90 per cent voter turnout in the Kadi seat of Mehsana district and 56.89 per cent in the Visavadar constituency located in Junagadh district, officials said.

The BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded their candidates in the two seats. The Visavadar seat fell vacant in December 2023 after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP. The Congress has fielded Nitin Ranpariya in Visavadar.

The BJP has not won the Visavadar seat since 2007 despite its near-total dominance in Gujarat.