Gujarat bypolls: BJP ahead in Kadi, AAP leads by thin margin in Visavadar
Ahmedabad (PTI): AAP candidate Gopal Italia was leading by a thin margin in Visavadar while BJP's Rajendra Chavda was ahead in Kadi after the initial rounds of counting on Monday for bypolls to the two assembly seats in Gujarat, officials said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fielded their candidates in the two seats, where the byelections were held on June 19.
The Visavadar seat in Junagadh district fell vacant in December 2023 after the then AAP legislator Bhupendra Bhayani resigned and joined the ruling BJP.
The Kadi constituency in Mehsana district, reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, was lying vacant since February 4 following the death of BJP MLA Karsan Solanki.
After the completion of two rounds of counting, AAP's former Gujarat president Gopal Italia was leading in Visavadar by 391 votes.
While Italia received 7,179 votes, his close rival and BJP candidate Kirit Patel was behind with 6,788 votes after two rounds, as per data shared by the Election Commission.
In Kadi, BJP's Rajendra Chavda gained a leading position with 12,701 votes while Congress' Ramesh Chavda was trailing with 6,949 votes.
The bypolls last week witnessed 57.90 per cent voter turnout in Kadi and 56.89 per cent in Visavadar.
The Congress has fielded Nitin Ranpariya in Visavadar.
Despite its near-total dominance in the state, the BJP has not won the Visavadar seat since 2007. Party leaders earlier said they were hopeful of overcoming the 18-year jinx this time.
In the last assembly election in 2022, AAP's Bhupendra Bhayani defeated BJP's Harshad Ribadiya, a Congress turncoat and former MLA, by 7,063 votes.
For the Kadi bypoll, the Congress gave ticket to Ramesh Chavda, a former MLA, who won the seat in 2012, but lost it to BJP's Karsanbhai Solanki in 2017.
Like Visavadar, there is a three-way fight in Kadi also, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP fielding Jagdish Chavda.
In the 182-member Gujarat assembly, the BJP currently has 161 legislators, Congress 12 and AAP four. While one seat is with the Samajwadi Party, two are with independents.
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Cash discovery row: SC grills Justice Yashwant Varma over his petition
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday questioned Justice Yashwant Varma over his plea to invalidate an in-house inquiry panel report indicting him over the discovery of huge cache of burnt cash from his official residence during his tenure as a Delhi High Court judge.
"Why did you appear before the inquiry committee? Did you come to the court that the video be removed? Why did you wait for the inquiry to be completed and the report be released? Did you take a chance of a favourable order there first," a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and A G Masih asked senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was representing Justice Varma.
The top court further quizzed Justice Varma over the parties he had made in his plea and said he should have filed the in-house inquiry report with his plea.
Sibal submitted there was a process under Article 124 (the Establishment and constitution of the Supreme Court), and a judge couldn't be a subject matter of public debate.
"The release of video on SC website, public furore, media accusations against judges are prohibited as per constitutional scheme," Sibal added.
The top court asked Sibal to come with one page bullet points and correct the memo of parties.
The matter was posted for July 30.
Justice Varma has sought quashing of the May 8 recommendation by then chief justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, urging Parliament to initiate impeachment proceedings against him.
His plea said the inquiry "reversed the burden of proof", requiring him to investigate and disprove the charges levelled against him.
Alleging that the panel's findings were based on a preconceived narrative, Justice Varma said the inquiry timelines were driven solely by the urge to conclude proceedings swiftly, even at the expense of "procedural fairness".
The petition contended that the inquiry panel drew adverse findings without affording him a full and fair hearing.
A report of the inquiry panel probing the incident had said Justice Varma and his family members had covert or active control over the store room where a huge cache of half-burnt cash was found following a fire incident, proving his misconduct which is serious enough to seek his removal.
The three-judge panel headed by Chief Justice Sheel Nagu of the Punjab and Haryana High Court conducted the inquiry for 10 days, examined 55 witnesses and visited the scene of the accidental fire that started at around 11.35 pm on March 14 at the official residence of Justice Varma, then a sitting judge of the Delhi High Court and now in the Allahabad High Court.
Acting on the report, then CJI Khanna wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi recommending the judge's impeachment.
