Amit Shah in fray, BJP sees chance of winning all 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat

GANDHINAGAR: BJP workers greeted the news of party president Amit Shah contesting the Lok Sabha election from Gandhinagar, a seat associated with party veteran LK Advani since 1991, by bursting firecrackers and distributing sweets. They said that with Shah contesting the polls, the party’s chances of scoring a perfect 26 in the state once again will get strengthened.

Gandhinagar is considered a safe seat for the BJP since the party has held it continually for the past three decades since Shankersinh Vaghela won it in 1989. Advani represented the seat thereafter, barring the period of 1996-98 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee and local BJP candidate Vijay Patel won the seat. But even as it is a BJP bastion, Gandhinagar may witness an interesting contest owing to factionalism between Shah and Anandiben Patel and anti-BJP sentiment in the Patidar community.

Ghatlodiya and Sabarmati are traditional strongholds of Patidar voters and Anandiben Patel camp in the party is known to have a strong grip on these seats.


“This is not going to be a cakewalk for Amit Shah,” said Atul Patel, a Patidar youth. “There is already enough anger and the community also harbours a soft corner for Anandiben. So the contest for sure will be tough in these areas.”

Besides, the seat includes Vejalpur assembly segment, which has a large number of Muslim and Dalit voters, and Sanand, which has been a vortex of farmer anger in the state.

In the 2017 assembly election, the party won five out of seven seats in Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency while the Congress won Gandhinagar North and Kalol, albeit with margins of less than 20,000. The party saw its biggest win in Ghatlodiya, where Bhupendra Patel won with a margin of 117,750 votes.

Naranpura, Amit Shah’s assembly constituency, saw the BJP winning with a margin of 66,215 votes while in Sabarmati, the party won with a margin of 68,810 votes.

The BJP’s local unit is pinning its hopes on a big victory of Shah from Gandhinagar. In his welcome tweet, Gujarat BJP spokesman Bharat Pandya said, “He will definitely pull up a record victory in Election 2019.”