Ahmedabad: The Congress pulled off a surprise upset in Gujarat when it bagged three of the six Assembly seats whose by-election results were announced on Thursday.
The icing on the cake was the sweet revenge when the two Congress turncoats, Alpesh Thakore and Dhavalsinh Zala, seeking to return on BJP tickets were defeated.
For the records, four out of the six seats were with BJP which had to be vacated by the incumbents after they had won in Lok Sabha elections while the Congress MLAs from Radhanpur and Bayad Alpesh Thakor and Dhavalsinh Jhala had joined BJP, necessitating the bye-elections. While Congress candidate Jashu Patel defeated Dhavalsinh Zala in Bayad seat of Arvalli district by a margin of over 700 votes.
Zala accepted defeat and left the counting centre even before the final results. He was booed by Congress workers and his vehicle had to be virtually escorted out by the police.
High profile social worker turned politician, Alpesh Thakore who had joined the Congress before the 2017 vidhan sabha elections and was elected from Radhanpur and subsequently defected to the BJP, was in the fray from the same constituency.
However his return bid was thwarted when he lost to Raghu Desai of the Congress. Thus the Congress has bagged Radhanpur, Bayad and Tharad Assembly sears while the BJP retained Amraiwadi, Lunavada and Kheralu.
But for the last minute change of fortunes, the Congress tally would have been higher. Congress candidate Dharmendra Patel fell back in the final rounds of counting losing to Jagdish Patel of the BJP by 4855 votes.
