New Delhi, June 1 (IANS) The Congress on Sunday named Rameshbhai Chavda as its candidate for the bypoll scheduled to be held on June 19 in Gujarat’s Kadi Assembly Constituency.

In a statement, Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal said that “Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has approved the candidature of Rameshbhai Chavda as the party’s candidate for the ensuing by-election”.

Kadi is among the five Assembly constituencies in three states that will be going for by-polls on June 19, the other four being Visavadar in Gujarat, Ludhiana-West in Punjab, Nilambur in Kerala and Kaliganj in West Bengal.

The Election Commission earlier in a notification announced that bypolls to the Assembly constituencies of Visavadar and Kadi will be held on June 19.

The ballots will be counted on June 23.

Meanwhile, the by-election in Visavadar Assembly seat is likely to be a triangular contest between the BJP, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party.

Interestingly, the grand old party which is a constituent of the INDIA bloc and a partner of the AAP in the alliance, said that it will contest the bypoll solo.

This year in March, the AAP named former Gujarat unit chief Gopal Italia as its candidate for the Visavadar Assembly bypoll.

The Kadi Assembly seat which in Gujarat’s Mehsana district, fell vacant in February following the passing away of BJP legislator Karsan Solanki.

Leaders from the ruling BJP as well as the opposition Congress have expressed confidence in putting on a good show in the upcoming bypolls.

Notably, in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the BJP has 161 MLAs, the Congress has 12 while the AAP has 4 legislators.

The Election Commission in a statement said that it has decided to use EVMs and VVPATs in the bye-election in all the polling stations.

“Adequate numbers of EVMs and VVPATs have been made available and all steps have been taken to ensure that the poll is conducted smoothly with the help of these machines,” it read.

–IANS

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