Gujarat: BJP wrests back Talala Assembly seat after 10 yrs

The victory is a shot in the arm for the BJP which suffered electorally in the Saurashtra region during district and panchayat polls six months ago. During the local body polls, BJP had somehow managed to retain power in Gir Somnath district panchayat with the help of Independents.

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For Congress, the bypoll defeat raises concerns. The party had hoped to ride the sympathy wave in the contest as the bypoll was necessitated due to the demise of the sitting Congress MLA Jashubhai Barad in January. But it lost despite giving ticket to Jashubhai’s younger brother, Bhagwan.

The BJP winner, Parmar (55), who is the president of Veraval agriculture produce market committee and has interests in agriculture and construction business, had earlier lost consecutive elections from the same seat.

While Bhagwan had beaten him by 5,632 votes in the 2007 Assembly elections, he was defeated by Jashubhai in the 2012 Assembly polls by 1,478 votes. In 2002, he had won against Jashubhai by a narrow margin of 626 votes.

“The victory is result of the hard work of BJP workers and the good steps taken by the state and the central government. The state government exercised caution in the Patidar quota stir and has now given whatever was possible. Yuva Swavalamban Yojna and 10 per cent reservation for the economically backward class has satisfied people. Congress had only added fuel to the Patidar agitation fire. This result…is also an indication of what might happen in the 2017 Assembly elections,” said Raju Dhruv, BJP spokesperson for Saurashtra region. To wrest the seat back from the Congress, the BJP has thrown its might behind the campaign. With BJP general secretary Mansukh Mandavia as in-charge of the bypoll seat, the party had sent at least a dozen state ministers to campaign in the constituency.

After the results were declared, the Congress admitted that it had failed to manage the poll well.

“The constituency is spread across two blocks — Talala and Sutrapada. While our performance was as per expectations in Talala, we believe we couldn’t manage our campaign that well in Sutrapada. Also, we couldn’t mobilse as many resources as they did,” said senior Congress leader Arjun Modhwadia.