Dahod (Gujarat), Nov 21 (PTI) Nationalist Congress Party's nominee from Devgadhbaria Assembly seat in Gujarat's Dahod district withdrew from the fray on Monday, paving the way for a straight contest between BJP and AAP, a development viewed as a setback to the NCP-Congress alliance in the poll-bound state.

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Devgadhbaria is one of the three Assembly segments in the state where the Sharad Pawar-led party has nominated its candidate under the pre-poll alliance with Congress, which has not fielded any candidate from this seat.

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Voting for the seat will be held in the second phase of the two-phase elections on December 5. Monday was the last day for the withdrawal of nominations.

NCP's Gujarat unit president Jayant Patel Boskey confirmed that Gopsinh Lavar has withdrawn his nomination from Devgadhbaria.

"He was given Rs 5 crore by the BJP to withdraw," Patel alleged.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded its sitting MLA Bachubhai Khabad from the seat while Bharat Vakhala is the Aam Aadmi Party's nominee.

Vakhala was a Congress candidate in the last Assembly elections.

As per the understanding between Congress and NCP, the latter has been allotted Umreth (Anand district), Naroda (in Ahmedabad), and Devgadh Baria (in Dahod district) seats.

In the 2017 Assembly elections, NCP's Kandhal Jadeja was the only candidate of the party, which had contested solo, to win.

Jadeja is contesting as a Samajwadi Party candidate this time after NCP denied him a ticket from the Kutiyana seat as part of the NCP-Congress tie-up.

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