Gandhinagar. With Congress not fielding any strong candidate in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expecting a victory for its sitting MP and Union Home Minister Amit Shah by a record margin of more than 10 lakh votes.
In the past, this predominantly urban constituency has been represented by stalwarts of the BJP like LK Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Although, this seat has been a stronghold of BJP since 1989, but when Congress made veterans like TN Seshan and Rajesh Khanna its candidates, an interesting contest was seen here.
This time Congress has fielded its Gujarat women’s unit president Sonal Patel against Shah. Shah had won the 2019 elections by a margin of more than five and a half lakh votes. Local BJP leaders said that the party’s aim is to increase the victory margin to more than 10 lakh.
In the year 2019, BJP’s CR Patil defeated his Congress rival from Navsari seat in Gujarat by a margin of more than 6.9 lakh votes. This was the largest margin of victory in the country in the 2019 elections. When asked about the target of ten lakh, Shah had recently told reporters, “My victory margin will be much more than in 2019.”
Shah, who was the MLA from Naranpura of the concerned Lok Sabha constituency, had said after filing his nomination papers, “I was an ordinary BJP worker and used to paste posters here. “I have represented this area for almost 30 years.”
Shah had earlier said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that India will bid for the 2036 Olympics and the Games will be organized in Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad. The Union Home Minister had conducted a road show in the constituency on April 18, a day before filing his nomination.
There are 21.5 lakh registered voters in the constituency (11.04 lakh male, 10.46 lakh female and 70 third gender). This includes Gandhinagar North, Kalol, Sanand, Ghatlodiya, Vejalpur, Naranpura and Sabarmati assembly constituencies. All seven seats, including five urban seats (Ghatlodia, Vejalpur, Naranpura, Sabarmati and Sanand) falling in the Ahmedabad region, were won by the ruling BJP in the 2022 assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Congress candidate Patel told PTI that a local candidate is better to contest Shah. He said, ‘There are two problems in bringing in a strong candidate from outside. The person doesn’t know anything about the field and when he leaves after the defeat, there is a void.’
All India Congress Committee (AICC) Secretary Sonal Patel also said that she has seen ‘Amit Bhai’ as a grassroots worker like herself who has moved forward in his party. Patel said, ‘I had not sought a ticket from the party as I was busy with Congress’ Maharashtra-related work, where I am co-in-charge of Mumbai and Western Maharashtra. The party asked me to contest this election and I accepted it.
On the claim by local BJP leaders that Shah’s victory margin would be more than 10 lakh, Patel said it was not possible as the total number of voters in the constituency is around 21 lakh and usually only around 60 per cent of them vote. Go to give. He said, ‘If they do not tamper with the EVMs then it is an impossible task.’
Congress worker Nimesh Patel said that last time party candidate CJ Chavda had got more than 3.5 lakh votes. He said, “This time Congress is expected to get more votes.” Chavda had recently joined BJP.
In the 1999 general elections, Congress had fielded Seshan against Advani, who was known for his steadfast stance while serving as the Chief Election Commissioner. Seshan had lost, but was successful in giving a tough fight. At the same time, in 1998, Congress nominated former Director General of Police of Gujarat P.K. Dutta was fielded against Advani. From 1991 to 2014, Advani won from Gandhinagar six times, except in 1996 when Vajpayee contested from Lucknow along with this seat.
After being elected from both the seats, Vajpayee kept the Lucknow seat with himself. After this, in the by-election held on Gandhinagar seat, Congress had fielded Bollywood superstar Rajesh Khanna against BJP’s Vijay Patel, but he lost. In 2019, Shah had contested the elections from Gandhinagar seat as a BJP candidate in place of Advani. In the third phase of general elections in Gujarat, voting will be held on 25 out of 26 Lok Sabha seats on Tuesday.
Tags: amit shah, BJP, Congress, Loksabha Election 2024, Loksabha Elections
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 6, 2024, 22:51 IST