Rajput test for BJP’s Gujarat sweep bid
The sa ron party, which is aiming for a hattrick of winning all 26 Lok Sabha seats in the State, is facing the ire of the community over controversial remarks by Union Minister Parshottam Rupala; CongressAAP alliance pins hopes on sitting legislators wh
fter the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal won the Surat seat uncontested, 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat, with 266 candidates in the fray, will go to the 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 on the back of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal in his own State, has dropped 14 MPs, including two Union Ministers Darshan Jardosh from Surat and Mahendra Munjapara from Surendranagar, this time. The party has elded 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 Gandhina
Agar, which was represented by L.K. Advani since the mid-1990s.
Earlier, the BJP had to change the candidates for two seats following protests by local party workers. In Vadodara, the party had initially elded sitting MP Ranjanben Bhatt but she was replaced by the 33year-old Hemang Joshi, the youngest candidate in the State. In Sabarkantha,
Bhikhaji Thakor was replaced by Shobhanaben Baraiya.
Cong.-AAP alliance
The Congress is ghting the election in alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is contesting from Bharuch and Bhavnagar. The Congress has elded nominees for 23 seats after the nomination for its Surat candidate was cancelled.
The AAP has elded 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 Parliament since 1998 from this Muslim and dominated seat.
The Congress has elded 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 ght 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 ghting from the ST-reserved Dahod seat.
On the back foot
tribal
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 had 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.