BJP wins Jasdan bypoll; reaches three-figure mark in Gujarat Assembly
Ahmedabad, Dec 23: The ruling BJP comfortably won the bypoll from Jasdan Assembly seat in Gujarat Sunday, taking its tally in the House to 100.
BJP candidate Kunvarji Bavaliya defeated his nearest rival, Congress nominee Avsar Nakiya, by a margin of 19,979 votes, officials said.
Bavaliya retained the Assembly seat in Rajkot which he had won as Congress candidate in 2017.
With this, the BJP now has 100 MLAs in the 182-member Gujarat Legislative Assembly, while the Congress tally has come down to 76. The saffron outfit had won 99 seats in the 2017 assembly polls and the Congress 77.
At the end of the counting of votes, Bavaliya secured a total 90,262 votes as against Nakiya's 70,283, the officials said. A total 2,146 votes were cast as NOTA, they said.
Polling for the Jasdan Assembly seat was held on December 20 and a voter turnout of 71.27 per cent was recorded.
The by-poll became a battle of prestige between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress in the wake of the latter winning the just held assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
The by-election was necessitated after Bavaliya, an influential Koli community leader who had won the seat on a Congress ticket in 2017, resigned from the party and also the assembly, and joined the BJP.
Bavaliya, who quit as an assembly member on July 2, was made a Cabinet minister in the BJP government the same day. As the Congress candidate in 2017, Bavaliya had won over BJP's Bharat Boghara by a margin of 9,277 votes.
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India proposes preferential trade agreement with Mexico to deal with high tariffs
New Delhi (PTI): India has proposed a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Mexico to help domestic exporters deal with the steep tariffs announced by the South American country, a top government official said on Monday.
Mexico has decided to impose steep import tariffs - ranging from about 5 per cent to as high as 50 per cent on a wide range of goods (about 1,463 tariff lines) from countries that do not have free trade agreements with Mexico, including India, China, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
Commerce Secretary Rajesh Agrawal said that India has engaged with the country on the issue.
"Technical level talks are on...The only fast way forward is to try to get a preferential trade agreement (PTA) because an FTA (free trade agreement) will take a lot of time. So we are trying to see what can be a good way forward," he told reporters here.
While in an FTA two trading partners either significantly reduce or eliminate import duties on maximum number of goods traded between them, in a PTA, duties are cut or removed on a limited number of products.
Trading partners of Mexico cannot file a compliant against the decision on imposing high tariffs as they are WTO (World Trade Organisation) compatible.
The duties are within their bound rates, he said, adding that their primary target was not India.
"We have proposed a PTA because its a WTO-compatible way forward... we can do a PTA and try to get concessions that are required for Indian supply chains and similarly offer them concessions where they have export interests in India," Agrawal said.
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Citing support for local production and correction of trade imbalances, Mexico has approved an increase in MFN (most favoured nation) import tariffs (5-50 per cent) with effect from January 1, 2026 on 1,455 tariff lines (or product categories) within the WTO framework, targeting non-FTA partners.
Preliminary estimates suggest that this affects India's around USD 2 billion exports to Mexico particularly -- automobile, two-wheelers, auto parts, textiles, iron and steel, plastics, leather and footwear.
The measure is also aimed at curbing Chinese imports.
India-Mexico merchandise trade totalled USD 8.74 billion in 2024, with exports USD 5.73 billion, imports USD 3.01 billion, and a trade surplus of USD 2.72 billion.
The government has been continuously and comprehensively assessing Mexico's tariff revisions since the issue emerged, engaging stakeholders, safeguarding the interests of Indian exporters, and pursuing constructive dialogue to ensure a stable trade environment benefiting businesses and consumers in both countries.
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Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai has said that Mexico's decision is a matter of concern, particularly for sectors like automobiles and auto components, machinery, electrical and electronics, organic chemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and plastics.
"Such steep duties will erode our competitiveness and risk, disrupting supply chains that have taken years to develop," Sahai said, adding that this development also underlines the little urgency for India and Mexico to fast-track a comprehensive trade agreement.
Domestic auto component manufacturers will face enhanced cost pressures with Mexico hiking duties on Indian imports, according to industry body ACMA.
