Gujarat: These 16 seats became BJP’s nose battle, PM Modi had to do 40KM road show for 2 consecutive days

The contest has turned interesting with the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has fielded candidates on all the 16 seats.Whereas, All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen is contesting on four seats.

Political analysts predict that the BJP, currently holding 12 of these 16 seats, can win most of these seats and AAP will hardly be able to make any impact.In some seats, AIMIM can cut the votes of Congress.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held two back-to-back roadshows in the city ahead of the second phase of polling.In this phase, voting is to be held in the seats of North and Central Gujarat.As such, the 16 assembly seats of Ahmedabad city, which is called the BJP’s stronghold, have again come into the limelight.Modi had led a 30-km roadshow in the city on December 1.His road-show passed through 13 assembly constituencies of Ahmedabad.On December 2, he led a 10-km roadshow from Ahmedabad airport to Saraspur area as part of his high-profile campaign.

The voters of this city, like other cities of Gujarat, have stood firmly behind the BJP since the early 90s.The two major seats in the city are Maninagar and Ghatlodia.Modi was the MLA from Maninagar seat from 2002 to 2014, while Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel is the MLA from Ghatlodia seat, dominated by the Patidar community.Earlier, former Chief Minister Anandiben Patel was the MLA from this seat.

Despite the Patidar quota agitation in 2015, Bhupendra Patel won in 2017 with a huge margin of 1.17 lakh votes.The BJP has announced to make Patel the chief minister’s chair if it comes to power again.

The Congress has fielded its Rajya Sabha member Dr. Ami Yagnik from Ghatlodiya.Maninagar constituency can be called the most talked about seat of the city and a stronghold of the BJP.On the one hand, the Jamalpur-Khadia and Dariyapur seats are dominated by Muslims, while at least six other seats – Ghatlodiya, Thakkarbapa Nagar, Sabarmati, Maninagar, Nikol and Naroda – have a sizeable number of voters from the Patidar community.

Vejalpur and Danilimda (reserved) seats also have a sizeable number of Muslim voters.During the 2012 assembly elections, the BJP had won 14 seats and the Congress had won two seats in Dariyapur and Danilimda.In 2017, the Congress improved its performance and won four seats, Bapunagar, Jamalpur-Khadia, Dariyapur and Danilimda.

 

The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM had announced candidates for these four and Vejalpur seats, but Shahnawaz Pathan, the party’s candidate from the Bapunagar seat, apparently withdrew his nomination in favor of the Congress candidate.

This time Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has fielded its candidates in all the 16 seats in the city.In 2017, in Bapunagar, Himmatsinh Patel of Congress defeated BJP MLA Jagroop Singh Rajput by a narrow margin of around 3,000 votes.

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Political analyst Dilip Gohil told PTI that though the AIMIM candidate has withdrawn his nomination in favor of Himmat Singh Patel, there is a possibility that the BJP may win the seat again this time due to a possible split in Congress votes. Is.

“Even if AIMIM is not in the fray, Samajwadi Party candidate Altaf Khan Pathan can spoil Himmatsinh Patel’s game through division of Muslim votes and ultimately BJP can win this seat,” he said.