Cong ends LS seat drought after 10 yrs, wins Banaskantha

Ahmedabad | Jun 05, 2024 | 8 min read

Cong ends LS seat drought after 10 yrs, wins Banaskantha

The Congress on Tuesday broke its decade-long jinx in Gujarat as its candidate Geniben Thakor won from Banaskantha Lok Sabha seat by more than 30,000 votes. Congress had drawn a blank in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi both in 2014 and 2019 when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had swept all 26 seats. This time, the BJP is poised to win 25 seats. Thakor defeated the BJP’s Rekha Chaudhari by 30,406 votes in a nail-biting contest. Thakor polled 6,71,883 votes against her rival’s 6,41,477. “I express my heartfelt thanks to Congress workers and voters of Banaskantha. The people of Banaskantha have given me both vote and note, and I will fulfil all promises made to them,” said Thakor who had crowdfunded her campaign. “I once more thank them for coining the slogan, “Banas ni ben Geniben’ (translated from Gujarati as ‘Geniben, the sister of Bansasnaktha’), and promise to serve them as long as I live....This is a victory of the people, voters and democracy,” she told reporters. Thakor, who is currently Congress MLA from Vav Assembly seat, said she received overwhelming response to her appeal for campaign donations.  Her rival Rekha Chaudhary, an engineering college professor, was a first-time candidate. Thakor had earlier defeated BJP heavyweight Shankar Chaudhary in the 2017 assembly election, and retained the seat in 2022 by defeating the BJP’s Swarupji Thakor. ​​​​​​​ She had lost her first assembly election from Vav in 2012 to Shankar Chaudhary.AM 3 women MPs from Gujarat elected The Lok Sabha will have three women members from Gujarat. These include BJP’s Poonam Maadam from Jamnagar and Shobhana Baraiya from Sabarkantha, besides Congress’s Geniben Thakor from Banaskantha. Maadam is a third-time MP while Baraiya won elections for the first time. Thakor is the incumbent MLA of Vav constituency in Banaskantha.

4.49 lakh NOTA votes cast in Gujarat

Ahmedabad | Jun 05, 2024 | 6 min read

4.49 lakh NOTA votes cast in Gujarat

In the Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got the highest number of votes. But a significant number of voters opted for the None of the Above (NOTA) option, silently declaring their opinion about the candidates. ​​​​​​​ Statewide, a total of 4,49,252 votes were cast for NOTA, representing 1.56% of the total votes. Notably, the highest number of NOTA votes, totalling 34,938, were recorded in the Dahod constituency, while the lowest, 10,503 votes, were in the Ahmedabad East constituency. In Gandhinagar, the constituency of Amit Shah, 22,005 votes were cast for NOTA, and in Navsari, C R Paatil’s constituency, 20,462 votes were recorded for NOTA. Furthermore, significant NOTA votes were seen in major constituencies, with 14,007 votes in Ahmedabad West, 15,922 in Rajkot, and 18,388 in Vadodara. Other constituencies also saw considerable NOTA votes, such as 29,655 in Chhota Udepur, 25,542 in Bardoli, 23,283 in Bharuch, 22,167 in Banaskantha, and 21,076 in Sabarkantha. It is worth mentioning that the highest number of NOTA votes, reaching 1.7 lakh, were cast in the Indore constituency. Additionally, the Panchmahal constituency recorded 20,103 NOTA votes. This was followed by 18,765 in Bhavnagar, 18,742 in Kutch, 18,824 in Kheda, 18,373 in Valsad, 16,722 in Patan, 15,930 in Anand, 14,013 in Junagadh, 13,563 in Porbandar, 13,299 in Surendranagar, 11,626 in Mehsana, 11,349 in Amreli, and 11,084 in Jamnagar. AM

Polltu Ram!

Ahmedabad | Jun 05, 2024 | 16 min read

Polltu Ram!

The third-time victory of Modi Sarkar has come with a handbook of lessons we can talk about another day. For now, let’s process this win, a perfect example of India Shining 2.0 — the previous being the marketing slogan used by the then-ruling BJP-led NDA in 2004 LS elections — revolving around economic optimism in India. Exit polls proved totally false, and political pundits’ predictions about BJP’s thumping majority of 345-plus seats and NDA 400-paar mere prophecy, the result has been shocking, to say the least. BJP securing 240 (falling short of 32 seats to get clear majority) and NDA securing just about 291 seats, it has been an alarming situation for the BJP and marking the beginning of a coalition regime where all hopes rest on Chandrababu Naidu who won 16 seats and Nitish Kumar who secured 12 seats. For someone who likes to work his own way, PM Narendra Modi needing these two means acknowledging them as Kingmakers. And considering the two leaders hold the reputation of being PaltuRams, no fate is sealed as yet. I.N.D.I.A Alliance with 240-plus seats is likely to throw its hat in the ring for forming the next Government with help of Sharad Pawar to negotiate with Nitish Naidu and other regional satraps. Although at the outset, BJP being the single largest party with a pre-poll alliance with NDA (290 seats) is all set to form the Government, and may receive official invitation from President Draupadi Murmu within 48 hours. The number games, distribution of portfolios and political weightage to regional parties is set to weaken Modi Government 3.0. ​​​​​​​ BJP suffered heavy losses in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Bihar. Uttar Pradesh being a key state with 80 seats had BJP scoring only 31, falling to half of its performance in 2019, while S and Congress could manage to win over 45 seats.  In Maharashtra, too, people rejected BJP’s divisive politics of dividing NCP and Shiv Sena. Not just that, while the farmers were angry, particularly those growing sugarcane and onion produce, Maratha Reservation Agitation proved costly for BJP’s Mahayuti where Congress, Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thakeray scored an advantage. In Haryana and Rajasthan, Jaat politics, Agniveer Scheme, Farmers Agitation only supplemented the misery of BJP. On the other hand, BJP fared well in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Telengana while they failed to get desired results in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala. I.N.D.I.A Alliance with their Caste Politics could consolidate Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe, OBC and Muslim votebank in a No Wave Election. Perhaps it is time for BJP to introspect its Hindutva policy, divisive politics, non-democratic way of forming Government and Aayaram-Gayaram politics, poaching Congress and AAP leaders for short-term political gains and annoying their own party workers. Like Rahul Gandhi said in his post-results press conference, it was their fight to save the Constitution and end Crony Capitalism. Time is ripe for people to hear out the Opposition before being labelled Blind Bhakts! What went wrong and where?   BJP’s attempt to persuade and woo voters via Ram Mandir, mangalsutra, mutton macchhi, Muslims mujra etc failed to connect with electorate. In Ayodhya, epicentre of Ram Temple movement, BJP lost despite having 93.5 per cent Hindu voters.   The Abki-baar-400-paar narrative boomeranged because it was perceived that BJP would change the Constitution of India, depriving OBC, SC, ST of reservation.   The Opposition challenged the BJP with large-impact issues including social justice, unemployment, poverty, price rise, low wages, income inequality, Agniveer Scheme, paper leaks, unemployment despite 30-lakh govt vacancies

C R Paatil and Amit Shah win by biggest margins

Ahmedabad | Jun 05, 2024 | 7 min read

C R Paatil and Amit Shah win by biggest margins

State BJP president CR Paatil won with the highest vote margin of 7,73,551 votes in Gujarat winning Navsari for the BJP for the fourth time.  He secured 10,31,065 votes in total defeating Congress candidate Naishad Desai who got over 2.57 lakh votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections Paatil had won with the highest margin of 6.89 lakh votes in the country. Union Home Minister Amit Shah was the second-best performer in the state with a victory margin of 7,44,716 votes in the Gandhinagar seat. Though Shah got the highest number of votes at 10,10,972, his victory margin was reduced a bit as Congress candidate Sonal Patel secured 2.66 lakh votes.  Chandanji Thakore, Congress’ candidate from Patan gave a tough fight during the initial round but began to trail in the last three rounds. He was defeated by BJP’s Bharat Dabhi by 31,876 votes. ​​​​​​​Congress legislature party leader and five-time MLA Amit Chavda was defeated by Mitesh Patel of BJP in Anand with a margin of 89,939 votes. Congress was hopeful of bagging this seat. In Bharuch BJP’s Mansukh Vasava won for the sixth consecutive term. He defeated Chaitar Vasava of the Aam Admi Party with a margin of 85,696 votes.   Amit Shah polls 10,10,972 votes, betters 2019 lead Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday won the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 7.44 lakh votes, one of the highest in this election, bettering the figure of his 2019 victory. Shah defeated his nearest Congress rival Sonal Patel by a staggering margin of 7,44,716, announced the Election Commission of India. The Home minister, who had won the seat by a margin of over 5.5 lakh votes in 2019, clinched the seat for the second consecutive term and got 10,10,972 votes, while Patel received 2,66,256 lakh votes.

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