Assembly bypoll result: AAP's Gopal Italia wins Gujarat Visavadar seat, defeats BJP's Kirit Patel by 17,000+ votes

NEW DELHI: AAP leader Gopal Italia won the Visavadar seat, while BJP’s Rajendra Chavda secured the Kadi seat on Monday, as counting for the bypolls in these two Gujarat constituencies concluded. Italia, former Gujarat president of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), defeated BJP candidate Kirit Patel in Visavadar, Junagadh district, by a margin of 17,554 votes. Italia secured 75,942 votes compared to Patel’s 58,388 after 21 rounds of counting, according to Election Commission data. BJP leaders had hoped to end an 18-year losing streak in Visavadar, where the party last won in 2007. The bypolls, held on June 19, saw a voter turnout of 56.89% in the Visavadar constituency..

Vote counting started at 8 am and ended around 1:30 pm. The BJP, Congress, and AAP all contested this seat. The Visavadar seat fell vacant in December 2023 after former AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP. Congress candidate Nitin Ranpariya also contested from Visavadar. Meanwhile, as AAP’s Gopal Italia won the Visavadar bypolls and Sanjeev Arora led in Ludhiana assembly seat counting, party workers began celebrations outside the party office in Chandigarh on Monday.

Punjab AAP in-charge Manish Sisodia congratulated party workers in Punjab, saying the victories will boost morale:"This is a matter of great joy for every worker of AAP that the party has won two seats in the by-elections. Both seats are very important" He added, "They are happy with the work being done. It was being discussed in Punjab that these are semi-finals. We have won the semi-final; it is now time for the final.

Gujarat too was very important for us. Gopal Italia is a sharp leader; to raise the issues of Gujarat and raise the voices of all those people whose voices were always suppressed - he will emerge as a strong voice."Despite BJP’s dominance in Gujarat, it has not won Visavadar since 2007. In the 2022 assembly elections, AAP’s Bhupendra Bhayani defeated BJP’s Harshad Ribadiya, a former Congress MLA, by 7,063 votes.Following the bypoll results, the Gujarat assembly composition stands at: BJP 162, Congress 12, AAP 5, with one seat held by the Samajwadi Party and two by independents.