Gujarat bypoll: BJP's Harshad Parmar widens lead in Umreth as counting progresses

Anand, May 4 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Harshad Parmar is leading the Umreth Assembly by-election in Gujarat on Monday, extending his advantage over Congress rival Bhrugurajsinh Chauhan as counting of votes continued.

According to the latest figures after 16 rounds of counting, Parmar had secured 61,417 votes, leading by a margin of 22,937 votes.

Chauhan trailed with 38,480 votes. Counting began at 8 a.m. at the BJVM College campus in Vallabh Vidyanagar under tight security arrangements.

The bypoll to the Umreth constituency in Anand district was held on April 23 following the death of sitting BJP MLA Govind Parmar, a four-term legislator who had retained the seat in the 2022 Assembly elections.

Voting recorded a turnout of just over 59 per cent across more than 300 polling stations. Harshad Parmar, the son of the late MLA, is contesting his first major election.

He has previously served in local governance roles, and his candidature was backed by senior BJP leaders during the campaign.

Chauhan, a senior Congress leader, has served three terms as president of the Umreth taluka panchayat and currently holds a key organisational role in the party’s central zone in Gujarat.

A total of six candidates are in the fray, though the contest has largely remained bipolar between the BJP and the Congress after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chose not to field a candidate.

The Umreth Assembly seat is one of 182 constituencies in the state Legislative Assembly and forms part of the Anand district.

Counting of votes for the Umreth by-election is taking place alongside bypolls in several other states, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura and Nagaland.

A total of seven Assembly constituencies across five states went to bypolls, with counting underway and results expected later in the day.

The Umreth result is being closely watched as part of this broader electoral exercise, which comes alongside Assembly election results in multiple states across the country.