Gandhinagar, Nov 3 (IANS): An overall 53.28 per cent polling was recorded in by-elections in eight Gujarat Assembly seats till 5 pm on Tuesday, Election Commission data said.

The highest 70.12% polling was in the tribal region of Dangs, followed by 63.94% in Kaprada. Limdi registered 54.35 per cent polling and Gadhada 46.69% by 5 pm.

Dhari registered the least 42.18% polling among all eight constituencies, and Morbi 50.34 per cent. No updates were available for Abdasa and Karjan constituencies.

There were 81 candidates fighting for Abdasa (01) Kaprada (181), Karjan (147), Gadhada (106), Morbi (65), Dhari (94), Limdi (61), and Dangs (173) seats.

The counting of votes will take place on November 10.

The by-elections were necessitated as sitting Congress MLAs had resigned March onwards prior to the Rajya Sabha elections in June 2020, paving the way for third candidate Narhari Amin to enter the Upper House of Parliament.

Apart from Kiritsinh Rana from Limbdi, the BJP has fielded five Congress turncoats who joined the BJP - Pradyumansinh Jadeja from Abdasa, Brijesh Merja from Morbi, JV Kakadiya from Dhari, Jeetu Chaudhary from Kaprada, and Akshay Patel from Karjan.

The BJP has fielded former Minister and former Deputy Speaker Atmaram Parmar from Gadhada (SC) and former legislator Vijay Patel from Dangs,.

Besides Chetan Khachar in Limbdi, the Congress has fielded Babu Vadthaa from Kaprada, Suryakant Gamit from Dangs, Shantilal Sanghani from Abdasa, Jayantibhai Patel from Morbi, Suresh Kotadiya from Dhari, Mohanbhai Solanki from Gadhada, and Kiritsinh Jadeja from Karjan.