Palanpur, Nov 11 (PTI) The campaigning for the bypoll to the Vav assembly seat in Gujarat's Banaskantha district ended on Monday evening as senior leaders from the Congress and BJP made final efforts to woo voters.

Congress candidate and former MLA Gulabsinh Rajput and BJP's Swaroopji Thakor are the main contestants but the presence of BJP rebel Mavji Patel has made the bypoll, where voting will take place on November 13, a three-way fight.

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Swaroopji Thakor had lost from the seat, a Congress bastion, to opposition party candidate Geniben Thakor in the 2022 assembly polls.

Mavji Patel (73), who comes from the dominant Chaudhary community, was suspended as BJP's primary member on Sunday for his decision to contest as an independent candidate.

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Seven other candidates — six independents and one from the Bharatiya Jan Parishad party — are in the fray for the bypoll.

The Vav seat fell vacant following the resignation of Congress MLA Geniben Thakor, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Banaskantha in June.

"The campaigning for the Vav seat came to an end at 6 pm on Monday, and voting will commence at 7 am on November 13," returning officer and assistant collector Kartik Jivani said, adding that votes will be counted on November 23.

Several key leaders from the Congress and BJP, including Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Gujarat BJP chief and Union Minister CR Paatil and Gujarat Congress in-charge Mukul Wasnik, addressed rallies in Vav in the last one week.

The constituency has been a Congress stronghold, with Geniben winning the seat in 2017 and again in 2022.

In the general elections this year, Geniben defeated the BJP's Rekhaben Chaudhary, a debutant, by more than 30,000 votes in Banaskantha, becoming the only Congress candidate to register a win in Gujarat.

According to a release, the constituency has 3.10 lakh registered voters, including 1.61 lakh men and 1.49 lakh women.

Vav seat has approximately 83,000 voters of the Thakor community, 50,000 belonging to the Chaudhary community, 43,000 Dalits, 25,000 Maldhari (OBC) and 18,000 Brahmin voters.

Mavji Patel, who belongs to the dominant Chaudhary community, won from Vav in 1990 as the Janata Dal candidate. He then joined the opposition Congress but switched to the ruling BJP in 2019 after being denied a ticket from the Tharad seat in the 2017 assembly polls.

Mavji Patel was the Congress candidate from the Tharad seat in Banaskantha district in the 2012 polls but lost to the BJP. After being denied a ticket in 2017 from the seat, he fought as an independent but lost to BJP candidate Parbatbhai Patel.

In the bypoll held in Tharad in 2019, Congress candidate Gulabsinh Rajput defeated BJP nominee Jivraj Patel. He, however, lost to BJP candidate Shankar Chaudhary in 2022.

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