By IANS,
Gandhinagar: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday retained the Chotila seat, the by-election for which was held Jan 20, while the opposition Congress came in third.
The BJP’s Bharat Khorani won the seat by a margin of 22,368 votes over his nearest rival, Shamjibhai Chauhan, who contested as an Independent after being refused a Congress ticket. Congress candidate Nirantben Dhoriya was pushed to the third place.
The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting BJP member, Vashram Khorani, whose son Bharat was the party nominee this time. He improved on the victory margin of his father, raising it from 7,000 to over 22,000.
Chotila was a traditional Congress bastion which crumbled when Vashram won it for the BJP in the last assembly polls.
Gujarat Congress chief Siddartha Patel attributed the defeat to the division in votes caused by the presence of the rebel in the fray, while the defeated Congress candidate blamed her defeat to groupism within the party.