With the Assembly budget session coming to an end on Thursday, the BJP and the Congress are now readying themselves for a political battle for the by-elections to seven Assembly seats likely to be held in September.

While six of these seats fell vacant after the MLAs representing these constituencies got elected to Lok Sabha, the bypoll for the Chotila seat was necessitated due to the death of sitting MLA Popatbhai Jinjaria.

Both the parties are attaching great importance to the bypolls. According to political observers, the outcome is likely to have an impact on the state politics, particularly in the saffron party. Their analysis is based on the outcome of the bypolls in the Sabarkantha and Sabarmati Assembly segments in 2001 during Keshubhai Patel’s government, after which he had stepped down as Chief Minister, paving the way for Narendra Modi to take over the reigns of the state.

As six of these seats — Jasdan, Danta, Sami-Harji, Dhoraji, Dahegam and Chotila — were held by the Congress, the party leaders are leaving no stone unturned to retain them. The party is in an upbeat mood after its victory in the Junagadh Municipal Corporation elections, while the BJP is smarting under its defeat in the JMC polls and its average performance in the April Lok Sabha elections.

Congress leaders, including state unit president Siddharth Patel, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil and senior leader Arjun Modhwadia, have already taken a round of these constituencies to mobilise the workers at the grassroots level and assess the situation.

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