2017 Meeting elections in Gujarat noticed the BJP end at its lowest variety of seats since 1995. The 22-constituency distinction between it and the Congress or the truth that the BJP clinched practically half the votes at 49%, nevertheless, was simply a part of the story.
A number of BJP leaders, together with former ministers like Bhupendrasinh Chudasama and Saurabh Patel, scraped via final time by very skinny margins.
On 36 seats, the victory margin was lower than 5,000 votes. The BJP received 16 of those intently contested seats, and the Congress 18, whereas two have been received by Independents. In as many as 63 seats, the margin was lower than 10,000.
A number of names within the BJP’s 166 candidates declared to date (out of the full 182) are amongst those that had received narrowly final time. Some amongst these marginal winners have switched to the Aam Aadmi Social gathering (AAP) this time, and been fielded by it.
Such names within the BJP record embrace Gujarat Well being Minister Rushikesh Patel (Visnagar MLA); C Okay Raulji (Godhra MLA), who was within the Jail Advisory Committee that cleared the remission of Bilkis Bano case convicts, and who received by the second-lowest margin of 258 votes; Minister of State of Meals and Civil Provides Gajendrasinh Parmar (Prantij); and Babubhai Bokhiriya (the Porbandar MLA).
Chiman Shapariya, whom the BJP has introduced again to contest elections from Jamjodhpur seat, misplaced the identical constituency to the Congress in 2007 by simply 17 votes (the bottom margin since 1995). He received in 2012 however had misplaced in 2017.
After successful by 20,000-plus votes in 2007 and 2012, Rushikesh had seen his margin plunge to only over 2,800 in 2017 in Visnagar, largely because of the Patidar agitation, and has been fielded once more. Neither Congress nor AAP has introduced their candidates to date for this seat.
Sources within the BJP stated that given the get together’s emphasis on “winnability”, some veterans have needed to be dropped. Like in Dholka, the place Chudasama, a Kshatriya, was dropped in favour of Kiritsinh Dabhi, who’s a Karadiya Rajput, additionally an OBC, on a seat the place Kolis maintain the swing vote.
Even within the 2002 elections, when the Hindutva wave was at its peak and Narendra Modi was main the BJP to his first election within the state, Chudasama had taken the seat by a margin of simply 722 votes.
In 2007 once more, the Dholka seat had been a good contest, with Chudasama shedding to a Congress candidate by round 2,000 votes.
In 2017, Chudasama had received however the Gujarat Excessive Court docket had put aside his slender win after Congress candidate Ashwin Rathod took him to courtroom for wrongful invalidation of votes. However the Supreme Court docket had stayed the order.
A candidate who comes again after the narrowest win of final time – by 170 votes – is Jitu Chaudhary, a tribal chief. Having received on a Congress ticket from the Kaprada (ST) seat, he had defected and received the 2020 by-election on a BJP ticket by over 47,000 votes. Inducted as minister, Chaudhary has been fielded by the BJP from Kaprada.
Matar MLA Kesarisinh Solanki, who received by a margin of two,406 votes, just lately confronted allegations of instigating the general public flogging of Muslims in his constituency in October. Dropped by the BJP, he joined AAP Thursday.
For tribal chief Harshad Vasava, his profession has come full circle. In 1998, he had misplaced from Rajpipla (ST) seat, however received it in 2007 as a BJP candidate with a skinny margin. On being denied a ticket this time, he’s contesting as an Unbiased from Nandod seat, that covers the Statue of Unity space, after resigning as president of the BJP Tribal Morcha.
The 2 Independents who noticed slender wins have been Bhupendrasinh Khant in Morva Hadaf (ST) seat and Ratansinh Rathod in Lunawada. Khant, who defeated the BJP candidate by 4,366 votes, and had introduced his help to the Congress, died in 2021. Within the subsequent by-election, the BJP’s Nimisha Suthar received the seat.
Rathod, who had received Lunawada in opposition to the BJP by 3,200 votes, joined it quickly afterwards and is now a Lok Sabha MP of the get together. The Lunawada seat was additionally received by the BJP in a by-election.
AAP, which has been forward of the BJP and Congress in asserting candidates, has declared 178 of its 182 names already. The Congress has introduced about 89.