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After the BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal scored an easy win in Surat uncontested, 25 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat, with 266 candidates in the fray, will go to polls in the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 7.
The BJP, which won all the 26 seats in 2014 and 2019 due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal in his own State, has dropped 14 sitting MPs, including Union Ministers Darshan Jardosh from Surat and Mahendra Munjapara from Surendranagar, this time. It has fielded two Union Ministers -- Mansukh Mandavia from Porbandar and Parshottam Rupala from Rajkot -- whose Rajya Sabha tenures ended earlier this month.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah is seeking reelection from the Gandhinagar seat, which was represented by L.K. Advani since the mid-90s.
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Earlier, the BJP had to change the candidates for two seats following protests by local party workers. In Vadodara, the party had initially fielded sitting MP Ranjanben Bhatt but she was replaced by the 33-year-old Hemang Joshi, the youngest candidate in the State. In Sabarkantha, Bhikhaji Thakor was replaced by Shobhanaben Baraiya.
The Congress is fighting the election in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is contesting from Bharuch and Bhavnagar. The party has fielded nominees from 23 seats after the nomination for its Surat candidate was cancelled.
AAP has fielded two of its sitting legislators Chaitar Vasava from Bharuch and Umesh Makwana from Bhavnagar. In Bharuch, the party’s popular tribal legislator Mr. Vasava, 36, is pitted against the BJP’s veteran parliamentarian Mansukh Vasava, Gujarat’s senior most MP, who has been voted to the Parliament since 1998 from this Muslim and tribal dominated seat.
Congress has fielded sitting legislators Amit Chavda from Anand, Tushar Chaudhary from Sabarkantha, Geniben Thakor from Banaskantha, Gulabsinh Chauhan from Panchamahal and Anant Patel from Valsad. It has nominated seven former legislators and one former MP to give a tough fight to the BJP. The former legislators in the fray are Paresh Dhanani from Rajkot, Lalit Vasoya from Porbandar, Ritwik Makwana from Surendranagar, Kalusinh Dabhi from Kheda, Chandanji Thakor from Patan, Bharat Makwana from Ahmedabad East and Sukhram Rathwa from Chhota Udepur while former MP Prabhaben Taviad is fighting from the ST-reserved Dahod seat.
Among the issues dominating election is the widespread protests by the Kshatriya or Rajput community over the controversial remarks by Union Minister Parshottam Rupala who had said that former kings and royals befriended the colonial British, broke bread and entered into marital relations with them. After the remarks, Mr. Rupala has apologised several times, but the Rajputs have been holding protests against the BJP in villages and towns and have even vowed to vote against the party. So far, despite several meetings between the government, ruling party leaders and representatives of the Rajput community, the issue has not yet been resolved.
Daily in several places, Rajput community members hold protests at the BJP’s election campaign events in Saurashtra and other parts of the state. Such protests have disrupted the BJP’s campaign in Jamnagar, Sabarkantha, Patan, Bhavnagar, Surendranagar and other places. The BJP is now banking on its trump card, the Prime Minister, who is scheduled to hold six rallies and one roadshow in the State on May 1-2.
