The Vadgam Meeting constituency in Banaskantha district shall be among the many keenly watched seats within the coming Meeting elections as incumbent MLA Jignesh Mevani, an Impartial legislator, seeks re-election as a Congress candidate. However Mevani has a troublesome battle on his arms as he must get previous the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP), and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) to win a second time period.
Mevani is anticipated to face a troublesome battle from the BJP’s Manilal Vaghela who represented the seat from 2012 to 2017 as a Congress legislator. Vaghela who’s an industrialist will look to settle scores together with his former celebration as within the 2017 Meeting elections he was shifted from Vadgam to the constituency of Idar in neighbouring Sabarkantha district. He ended up dropping to the BJP’s Hitu Kanodiya by greater than 14,000 votes. Vaghela moved to the ruling celebration in April.
The division of Dalit votes and a rift between the electorally essential Chaudhary neighborhood and the ruling celebration might find yourself influencing the election.
Vadgam is a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) communities and is without doubt one of the few constituencies in Gujarat the place Muslims type the biggest chunk of the citizens, adopted by the Chaudhary neighborhood, Dalits, Thakors, and Darbars. There are 2.94 lakh voters within the seat that’s thought-about to be a Congress bastion. Since 1995, the Congress has gained the seat 4 occasions.
The late Fakirbhai Vaghela, who was among the many BJP’s high Dalit leaders and was additionally a minister, received elected from Vadgam in 2007 after defeating the Congress’s Dolat Parmar, one other senior Dalit chief. However he misplaced to Manilal Vaghela in 2012. 5 years later, Mevani, backed by the Congress, defeated the BJP’s Vijay Chakravarti by greater than 19,000 votes. Final yr, Mevani pledged his allegiance to the Congress and was ultimately appointed its state working president this July.
The AAP, in the meantime, has fielded veteran Dalit activist Dalpat Bhatiya. Bhatiya is a well-respected determine in Banaskantha district. The AIMIM has not but introduced its candidate from Vadgam.
Division of votes
A major issue within the election is prone to be the division of Dalit votes, particularly Vankars and Rohits. Whereas Mevani and Bhatiya are from the Rohit neighborhood, Vaghela is a Vankar. A majority of the Dalit voters in Vadgam are from the Vankar neighborhood, adopted by Rohits.
One other incident that has added an attention-grabbing dimension to the electoral battle is the arrest of Chaudhary neighborhood chief and former Minister of State for House Vipul Chaudhary in an alleged case of corruption in September. This has induced a rift between the neighborhood and the BJP.
The Chaudhary-led Arbuda Sena, a social organisation representing the neighborhood, has come out towards the ruling celebration whereas protesting the arrest. They’ve threatened the BJP with penalties throughout the elections if Chaudhary, who’s at the moment in Sabarmati Central Jail, just isn’t launched.
The Chaudhary neighborhood wields a number of affect in Banaskantha district, together with Vadgam, and is the numerically largest neighborhood in Vadgam after Muslims. Arbuda Sena members protested outdoors a venue in Vadgam that Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel attended in reference to the celebration’s Gaurav Yatra.
Vadgam goes to ballot within the second part on December 5. The final date for submitting nomination papers is November 17. Mevani has introduced he’ll file his nomination papers on Tuesday. He’s prone to be accompanied by his buddy and Congress chief Kanhaiya Kumar.