Months-long legal battle ends with BJP setback in Gujarat’s Devgadh Baria bypoll

Winning candidates in Devgarh Baria Municipality

The election’s biggest political story unfolded in Ward No 4, where the AAP swept both seats. Nidhi Jain, one of the petitioners challenging her disqualification under the Gujarat Provisions of Disqualification of Members of Local Authorities for Defection Act, 1986, secured a victory with 1,070 votes. Her party colleague, Sarla Meda, won the second seat with 823 votes.

The BJP retained one seat in Ward No 1 through Jayendrasinh Raul, who got 854 votes, while Sahilkumar Mohaniya delivered the party’s second win with 785 votes. The Congress, meanwhile, registered victories in Ward No 5, with Akshay Suthar polling 1,095 votes and Laxmi Harijan winning with 845 votes.

As the results came in, supporters of the winning candidates celebrated with victory processions, drums, fireworks and slogan-shouting, bringing to a close an election that had become the latest flashpoint in a prolonged political battle within the municipality.

Legal battle continues

The six seats in the Devgadh Baria Municipality had fallen vacant after councillors were disqualified under the anti-defection law, triggering a legal dispute that remains pending before the Gujarat High Court.

The by-election itself appeared headed for uncertainty until July 27, when a Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal set aside a single judge’s interim order staying polling in two of the six seats.

Observing that every stage of the election except polling had already been completed, the high court held there was no justification for halting the electoral process. At the same time, it clarified that the election and its outcome would remain subject to the final decision in the pending writ petitions challenging the disqualification proceedings.

The litigation was the culmination of a year-long political crisis in the Devgadh Baria Municipality marked by BJP infighting, a no-confidence motion against the municipal president, rival factions within the ruling party, and repeated rounds of court intervention over leadership changes and councillors’ disqualification.

With nearly 71 per cent voter turnout, the ballots have settled one contest but not the larger political battle. The split verdict has altered the municipality’s immediate power dynamics, even as the legal fight that triggered the by-election continues to await the Gujarat High Court’s final verdict.