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Patidar factor heats up battle for Rajkot West, BJP’s ‘kingmaker seat’

There was a time when Congress had a strong base in Rajkot but in 1985, BJP took over and has…

Patidar factor heats up battle for Rajkot West, BJP’s ‘kingmaker seat’

(Photo: SNS0

There was a time when Congress had a strong base in Rajkot but in 1985, BJP took over and has held the reign in Rajkot since then.

Rajkot West has been a seat of repute for the BJP since 2002 when Narendra Modi contested his first election from here. After winning, he later was appointed as the Gujarat chief minister. The BJP has not lost this seat since 1985, however, this time there are strong chances that the Congress Party will give a tough fight all because of the Patidar agitation.

The Patidar agitation has paved the way for a possible Congress victory as the Patidars feel that the party they have always voted for has not been supportive of their reservation demands. Rajkot West is the most high-profile seat of the 8 assembly constituencies in Rajkot district and has a strength of about 75,000 Patidars who may not side with BJP this time around. A lot of ambiguity prevails over which way the Patidars shall sway.

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The Congress is hopeful of getting an advantage of the turbulent relationship the Patidar community shares with the BJP.

It was only in the year 1980 that Manibhai Ranpara of the Congress Party had won the seat defeating BJP leader Vajubhai Vala. However, Vajubhai came back to in 1984 and stayed till 2012. The only break being in 2002 when he vacated the seat for Narendra Modi, who later shifted to Maninagar seat and Vala was back to contesting his long-held seat. He won the seat in 2002, 2007 and 2012 and on BJP forming the government at the Centre in 2014, Vala was made the Governor of Karnataka.

After Vala’s elevation as a Governer, the seat was passed on to the incumbent Chief Minister Vijay Rupani in 2015 by-polls. Later, Rupani went on to succeed the then CM Anandiben Patel after she resigned from her post.

With around 3,00,000 voters,  Rajkot West is a seat of much political significance for all the parties. In this election, with 75,000 strong Patidar vote presence in this constituency, the community will decide the fate of Congress’s Indraneel Rajyaguru and BJP’s Chief Miniter Vijay Rupani.

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