Bavaliya stays Jasdan’s Big Boss, wins by-poll by 19,797 votes

Rajkot: Congress turncoat Kunwarji Bavaliya reaffirmed his supremacy on his traditional Jasdan assembly constituency by winning the crucial by-election by a decisive margin of 19,797 votes on Sunday.
Bavaliya, the five-time MLA from Jasdan, defeated Congress nominee Avsar Nakia, who fought his maiden election after managing the former’s poll campaigns for several years.

The school teacher-turned politician polled 90,262 votes as against Nakia who got 70,283 votes. This was nearly 10,000 votes more than what he had garnered in December 2017 assembly elections.

The 63-year-old prominent Koli community leader had switched loyalty to BJP on July 2 this year and immediately rewarded with a Cabinet rank portfolio in the Vijay Rupani government. His resignation had necessitated the by-poll here.

With Bavaliya’s victory, BJP reached the three-figure mark of 100 seats in the 182-member state assembly. The saffron party was left at a tantalizing 99 seats after losing 15 assembly constituencies in its bastion Saurashtra in the assembly polls, largely due to farmers’ distress.

This by-election was touted as a litmus test for chief minister Vijay Rupani as it was held in the backdrop of BJP’s rout in three states recently along with the severe agrarian crisis across Saurashtra which has resulted in at least 19 farmers committing suicide.

Rupani, who joined the Bavaliya’s victory procession, said the victory clearly points that BJP would win all 26 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 general elections. “Congress tried to make farmers’ suicide a poll issue, but Jasdan is a rural seat and the result shows that people in villages also support the BJP,” Rupani said.

Jasdan had always remained BJP’s electoral backwater as Bavaliya rode on immense people’s support even when Modi wave had swept entire Gujarat. It is after nearly a decade that saffron has bloomed in this constituency dominated by Koli voters. It was in 2009 that BJP had won this seat, that too in a by-poll as Bavaliya had resigned to successfully contest the Lok Sabha elections from Rajkot (rural SC ) seat. Bavaliya had won the seat on Congress ticket in 1995, 1998, 2002, 2007 and 2017 elections.

Out of the eight candidates who contested, six lost their deposit after polling less than 1,000 votes.

Talking to reporters, Bavaliya said, “This victory is a fitting reply to all those who called me a traitor when I joined BJP.

Sources said that Bavaliya campaign this by-poll was ironically managed by Bharat Boghra, who had contested against him in December assembly polls and lost. “I wanted to see BJP winning this constituency and my long pending wish has come true,” Boghra said.

Nakia found little support in his own native Asalpur village where Bavaliya got 764 votes while he himself garnered just 514.

Reacting to the loss, state Congress spokesman Dr Manish Doshi said that BJP has been forced to rely on Congressmen to win elections now since the party is bereft of any tall leader who can contest polls. “BJP also misused the state machinery and spent crores to win the election,” Doshi alleged.

Analysts pointed out that besides Bavaliya’s popularity, people backed him because of his say in the Cabinet affairs, being a minister for water resources