Vav assembly bypoll: Contest between BJP, Congress & two rebel candidates
Vav assembly seat scheduled for November 13, it has turned into a de-facto battle of prestige for the Opposition Congress that has fielded Gulabsinh Rajput, a close confidant of Geniben Thakor, the lone Congress member of Lok Sabha from Gujarat.
With AAP finally relenting from the contest after initial postering, the electoral battle is now clearly bipolar with BJP fielding Swarupji Thakor at the last minute. The Vav assembly segment in Banaskantha has a maximum population of Thakor voters at 70,000 followed by Chaudhary and Kshatriya voters.
While the seat also has significant Dalit, Brahmin and Muslim voters, it is the Thakor and Chaudhary voters who play a decisive role in the outcome. The Congress high command refrained from fielding a Thakor candidate after fielding Geniben in the Lok Sabha and rewarded Gulabsinh, a Kshatriya candidate who had played a crucial role in Geniben's Lok Sabha campaign. Rajput is also a very popular leader in the region in his own right. However, he had lost to Shankar Chaudhary, Speaker of Gujarat legislative assembly from nearby Tharad constituency in 2022, Thakor had lost to Geniben in Vav in last assembly polls.
Geniben's relative Bhuraji Thakor, who had earlier joined BJP has also jumped into the fray as an Independent as has BJP's Mavji Patel after being denied tickets. Vav has been a stronghold of Congress traditionally and had fallen vacant after its incumbent candidate Geniben Thakor went on to win Banaskantha Loksabha seat for Congress.
For Congress, Vav has become a
