The struggle for the Vav Meeting seat by-election was so shut that regardless of having led in 13 of the 24 rounds, Congress’s Gulabsinh Rajput fell behind by a slim margin of two,422 votes because the BJP’s Swarupji Thakor emerged the winner when counting of votes concluded on Saturday.
The Congress, which had gained three of the 5 elections to this seat within the common elections since 2002, suffered the worst setback of round 16,000 votes from Bhabhar, the taluka from the place Swarupji Thakor belongs.
In keeping with Geniben Thakor, whose exit from the Meeting seat following her election to the Lok Sabha necessitated the by-election, caste
grew to become a significant component.
The identical Geniben had defeated BJP strongman and co-operative chief Shankar Chaudhary from this seat in 2017 to earn the status of a “giant-slayer”. Chaudhary is the speaker of the Gujarat Meeting.
“Caste issue performed a significant function. As per our evaluation, Mavji Patel (A Chaudhary-Patel) contesting independently was anticipated to get round 35,000 to 40,000 votes. However within the final four-five days earlier than the election, our sense of the voters revealed that Chaudhary voters determined to stick with the BJP as they realised that Mavjibhai won’t win. The notion amongst them was that voting for Mavjibhai will solely displease Shankar Chaudhary, Parbatbhai Patel in addition to the occasion. So, they thought what was the purpose of voting for him if he was not going to win,” Geniben informed The Indian Categorical.
The occasion additionally blames “authorities strain” for the “turnaround” within the floor scenario within the final three-four days earlier than the votes had been polled.
Rajput misplaced to the Bharatiya Janata Celebration’s (BJP) Thakor with a margin of simply 2,442 votes. Vav was the one seat in Gujarat that went for bypoll after Congress MLA Geniben was elected to the Parliament earlier this 12 months.
As per the voting evaluation accomplished by the occasion, round 20,000 votes of the Chaudhary group had been diverted to Swarupji Thakor.
BJP insurgent candidate and former MLA Mavjibhai Patel, who belonged to the influential Chaudhary-Patel group, determined to contest independently when he was denied a ticket by the ruling occasion. He obtained 27,195 votes, securing the third place.
Out of a complete 3.10 lakh votes polled in Vav constituency, round 83,000 had been Thakor votes and practically 50,000 Chaudhary votes.
Including to the caste issue, Rajput informed The Indian Categorical that the “authorities” strain performed its function within the Vav by-election. “With the complete authorities equipment put into Vav bypoll, there was definitely strain mounted on the voters.”
From Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel to state occasion president C R Paatil together with senior ministers, the BJP had campaigned onerous for this seat.
Geniben stated that the Congress candidate fought towards the ruling authorities. “In opposition to the complete authorities equipment, it was simply the 2 of us (Rajput and I) contesting this election. However we’re glad that although we misplaced, in a approach we didn’t. We acquired a variety of votes and with this skinny margin, that is the primary time we have now felt that the Congress can win towards the BJP.”
Evaluation additionally revealed that the loss in Bhabhar taluka had hit the Congress candidate, Rajput, the toughest. “Whereas we have now a lead of 10,000 votes in Vav and round 4,000 in Suigam taluka, Bhabhar went right into a lack of 16,000 votes,” Rajput informed The Indian Categorical.
Geniben, too, admitted that Bhabhar was the game-changer because it helped Swarupji Thakor get the “native profit”. She stated, “There may be not a single Rajput vote that we weren’t privy to. However, we didn’t count on the Thakor votes to swing to such a terrific extent,” she added.
The caste-wise vote estimates within the three talukas shared by consultants revealed that Vav and Suigam talukas mixed have round 40,000 Chaudhary votes and round 30,000 Thakor votes. Equally, in Bhabhar taluka alone, there are round 9,000 Chaudhary votes and 53,000 Thakor votes.
“In Bhabhar taluka, whereas the BJP candidate obtained 37,000 votes and Mavjibhai 9,000, we acquired 19,000 votes. Thus, the BJP candidate from Thakor group and caste issue got here into play because the group’s votes went to him,” Rajput additional stated on voting share evaluation.
