Manjalpur: The Bharatiya Janata Party maintained its dominance over its traditional stronghold by winning the Manjalpur assembly by-election in Vadodara district on Monday. Party candidate Satish Govindbhai Patel secured the seat after defeating his primary challenger, Gujarat Congress vice president and former minister Bhikhabhai Rabari, by a margin of 30,630 votes. Election Commission data confirmed that Patel received 55,481 votes while Rabari polled 24,851 votes following the conclusion of all 20 counting rounds at Bhavan’s School in Makarpura.
The bypoll was necessitated following the passing of veteran eight-time MLA and former minister Yogesh Patel in June after a prolonged illness. While the BJP successfully retained the constituency, the victory margin saw a sharp contraction compared to the 2022 assembly elections, where the party had secured the seat by 1,00,754 votes. A historically low voter turnout of 37.5 percent was recorded during polling, with roughly 82,000 out of 2.19 lakh eligible voters exercising their franchise.
Following the final tally, Satish Patel thanked voters for preserving the constituency as an unbeatable fortress for the party, promising to prioritize community welfare and marginalized citizens. In contrast, defeated Congress candidate Bhikhabhai Rabari leveled allegations against the ruling party, claiming widespread Model Code of Conduct violations and state machinery misuse hindered a democratic election process. With this result, the ruling BJP increases its total tally in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly to 162 seats.
