Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Gujarat Assembly elections will be held in two phases, the first phase will hold voting for 89 of the total 182 seats on 9 Dec and the second phase polls will be held on 14 Dec.

As per the record, there are approximately 1,592 candidates in the field contesting for 89 seats. However, according to the data of Monday evening 20 Nov, a day before the last date to file the nominations only 377 candidates had filed the nominations and the remaining waited for the last day that was on Tuesday, 21 Nov. The last date to take back the nominations filed is 24 Nov.

For the first phase of election, some very high profile candidates have been listed, and on few seats, the candidates against each other are very heavy weight and the victory of any of them is very much possible, as both the contenders are strong and have high chances of winning. There are at least four seats that have become a prestige point for both the BJP and Congress. It is not easy to predict as to which candidate will nail the victory, but one thing is sure that whichever, candidate losses, it will be a major setback for the party.

Seat: Rajkot West

Rajkot West is one of the most important seats for the BJP even from the prestige point of view and from the political point of view. Since 1985 the seat has been under BJP and Vijay Rupani is contesting for the second time from it. This seat is considered as the fort of BJP and RSS in the Saurashtra region. But this time the situations seems to be telling a different tale. Congress has fielded Rajguru against Rupani, who is one of the strongest and one of the richest politicians of Gujarat Congress. He is also known as ‘Kuber’ (lord of wealth)

Earlier Indranil Rajfguru had always fought from Rajkot East, but this time the party has put the responsibility to defeat Rupani on his shoulders. Declaring his assets while filing the nominations, Rajguru states that he has property worth Rs 141 crore and there is no doubt that he will leave any stone unturned to defeat Vijay Rupani. While on other hand BJP is also making sure that by hook r by crook they keep the seat to themselves.

The preparations made by BJP is clearly indicating that how serious the party about getting the Rajkot West seat in their pockets. The party has made a secret war room, especially for the elections, making it the epicenter to initiate the election activities. Special IT experts were called from Delhi, Mumbai, and Patna to create this war room. According to the sources, even the IT experts of BJP have not been informed about this war room. Even the BJP members are not allowed to enter the room without permission.

Some experts from this war room have already worked with the BJP, with Modi’s team in 2014 and special focus is being given to social media campaigning.

If compared as to which candidate has an upper hand in Rajkot West, it will be a difficult analysis. As even after becoming the Chief Minister, Vijay Rupani has been keeping a check on his constituency from time to time. He even sometimes spends weekends in Rajkot in order to keep track of the working.

While on the other hand, Indranil is trying to establish his foothold in the region from past one year. Rajguru’s name and fame are not new for Rajkot, though the Congress leader s engaged in making a place for himself in the constituency in order to defeat Rupani. In 2012 BJP had won with 56% votes, while Congress managed to get only 40%.

Seat: Porbandar

Babubhai Bokhiriya and Arjun Modhwadia have been in conflict with each other for almost two decades now. Arjun has also been the State party president for Congress, but he lost the post after he faced the defeat in last elections. Babubhai has won from this constituency three times, while Arjun won two times, so the calculations and the chance of winning for both the contenders are very close. Both have fought against each other from the same seat three times. In 1998 Babubhai won, while in 2002 Arjun won and Babubhai won again in 2012.

If observing the sequence of winning, this time it is the turn of Arjun to win the polls, and after being defeated last time, Arjun has been giving special attention to his constituency and there are strong chances that he might win the polls.

As per the results of the previous polls, BJp had got 53% of voting while Congress got only 41%.

Seat: Dasada

The Dasada seat has been reserved for the Scheduled Castes and BJP has fielded, Ramanlal Vora as its contender against Naushad Solanki. Vora was made the Speaker of the Assembly in 2016 and he is considered as one of the biggest Dalit faces in Gujarat. Earlier, Vors fought the elections from Sabarkantha’s Idar seat.

From 1995 till 2012 Vora has nailed the victory from Idar seat for BJP. but this time the party decided to field him from Dasada. And it is after his nomination from this constituency, the fight for this seat has become important for both the parties.

Meanwhile the Congress candidate, Naushad Solanki is the President and handles the Scheduled Caste Welfare Department of Gujarat Congress. The seat of Dasada is not new for Solanki, as he has been working in the constituency for some years now.

This seat has become an arena for the Dalit leaders of both the parties and the Dalits hold around 7% of the total population of Gujarat. The results for this seat will show that whether the Dalits are in the favour of BJP or Congress. As per the results of previous elections, BJP had got 49% votes, while Congress managed 41%. The competition is tough for both the contenders and the victory of any party is quite possible.

Seat: Mandvi

The Congress candidate Shaktisinh Gohil has an upper hand in Mandvi, he is considered as one of the strongest and most effective faces in Gujarat. He is from Bhavnagar and it was being speculated that he will contest from there, but the Congress fielded him from Mandvi, which was a little surprising for everyone.

Mandvi comes in the Kuchh region and even until the last time, no one even had the clue that Gohil will be fielded from this constituency, where BJP has a stronghold. In 2012 elections also the seat was taken by BJP, despite knowing the Congress has taken the risk to filed Gohil. The party feels that Gohil’s personality can work magic for the party in Madvi.

Last time Tarachand Cheda was the BJP contender, who has also been a minister in the Gujarat assembly, but this time BJP fielded Virendra Singh Jadeja from Mandvi. The results of this seat will be worth waiting for as both the parties have taken a risk in fielding new faces. As per the previous elections, BJP got 44% votes, while Congress managed 38%.

These four seats have become a prestige point for both Congress and Gujarat. The first phase of polls will be held on 9 Dec and the second phase will be on 14 Dec. The results for the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assembly elections will be announced on 18 Dec.