Five newly elected BJP MLAs take oath in Gujarat, party's tally in assembly reaches 161

Ahmedabad: Five MLAs of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who won in the recent bypolls in Gujarat, took oath of office in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

The newly-elected legislators, including four Congress turncoats, were administered oath by assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary in his office in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, an official release stated.

In the assembly elections held in December 2022, the BJP retained power by winning a record 156 out of 182 seats, and now, with five more MLAs in its fold, the party's strength has risen to 161.

MLAs Arjun Modhwadia, C J Chavda, Arvind Ladani, Chiragkumar Patel and Dharmendrasinh Vaghela took the oath.

Vaghela was an independent MLA from Vaghodia seat, while the remaining four had won on Congress ticket in the 2022 assembly polls by defeating their closest BJP rivals.

They resigned as legislators between December 2023 and March 2024 and subsequently, joined the BJP, necessitating the by-election in the Porbandar, Vijapur, Manavadar and Khambhat assembly constituencies.

The BJP fielded those who joined the party from their respective seats in the by-election held on May 7.

Modhwadia won from Porbandar by a margin of more than 1.16 lakh votes. He polled 1.33 lakh votes against 16,355 received by Congress' Raju Odedara.

Modhwadia had won the 2022 assembly elections from Porbandar as a Congress candidate, defeating BJP's Babu Bokhiria.

Chavda won from Vijapur, defeating Congress Dinesh Patel by more than 56,000 votes, while Ladani retained Manavadar with a margin of more than 31,000 votes against Congress rival Haribhai Kansagara.

Khambhat and Vaghodia candidates Chiragkumar Patel and Dharmendrasinh Vaghela also retained their respective seats.

They defeated Congress Mahendrasinh Parmar and Kanu Gohil, respectively, by a margin of over 38,000 and 82,000 votes.