Palanpur (Gujarat), Nov 13 (PTI) The Vav assembly seat in Gujarat's Banaskantha district recorded 14.25 per cent voter turnout till 9 am on Wednesday as polling was underway for the byelection in the constituency, as per the data shared by poll authorities.
Polling began at 7 am, with BJP candidate Swarupji Thakor being among the early voters.
Congress nominee Gulabsinh Rajput, who is not a registered voter in Vav, offered prayers at a temple in Dhima village of the constituency in the morning.
Rajput is registered as a voter in Tharad constituency of the district.
While Thakor and Rajput are the main contestants in Vav, the entry of saffron party rebel Mavji Patel, who is contesting as an independent, has made it an interesting fight.
Seven other candidates -- six independents and one from the Bharatiya Jan Parishad party -- are also in the fray for the bypoll, which was necessitated following the resignation of Congress MLA Geniben Thakor, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from Banaskantha in June.
There are 3.1 lakh eligible voters in the assembly seat, including 1.61 lakh men and 1.49 lakh women.
A total of 321 ballot units and as many control units are being used for the polling for which 1,412 officials have been deployed.
The counting of votes will be held on November 23.
In the 2022 assembly polls, BJP's Swarupji Thakor lost from Vav seat, a Congress bastion, to opposition party candidate Geniben Thakor.
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.
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 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 Tharad seat in the 2017 assembly polls.
In the 2012 polls, Mavji Patel was the Congress candidate from Tharad seat, 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 2019 Tharad bypoll, Congress' Gulabsinh Rajput defeated BJP nominee Jivraj Patel. He, however, lost to BJP candidate Shankar Chaudhary in 2022.