VADODARA, AUG 3 (IANS) Counting of votes for the Manjalpur Assembly by-election began on Monday morning, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Satish Patel taking an early lead over his Congress rival.

According to the Election Commission of India, as of 9 a.m., Satish Patel had secured 6,287 votes, while Congress candidate Bhikha Rabari received 2,768 votes.

The BJP candidate was leading by 3,519 votes in the early stages of counting.

The counting process is being conducted at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Makarpura in Vadodara under security arrangements put in place by the election authorities.

The by-election was necessitated by the death of veteran BJP MLA and former state minister Yogesh Patel, who had represented the Manjalpur constituency for multiple terms.

Polling for the by-election was held on July 30 and concluded peacefully with a final voter turnout of 37.50 per cent, considerably lower than the 60.15 per cent recorded in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly election.

The contest is a direct fight between the BJP's Satish Patel, a former Vadodara Municipal Corporation councillor and former BJP Vadodara district president, and the Congress' Bhikha Rabari, the party's Gujarat vice-president and a former state minister.

A total of 2,19,494 electors were eligible to vote in the constituency, where polling was conducted across 260 polling stations under extensive security measures, including 100 per cent webcasting and CCTV surveillance.

Voting remained largely peaceful throughout the day.

A brief confrontation was reported outside a polling station at Panchsheel Vidyalaya after BJP and Congress workers exchanged allegations over an alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

Police intervened, dispersed the gathering and confirmed that polling continued uninterrupted. No major law-and-order incidents were reported elsewhere in the constituency.

Counting is continuing, and trends are expected to change as additional rounds are completed.

The Election Commission will declare the official result after all rounds of counting have been concluded.

[KS]

--IANS

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