Parshottam Rupala emerges unscathed from Kshatriya anger, wins Rajkot with record margin

Rupala polled 8,57,984 votes, as the Lok Sabha elections results showed on Tuesday. The Congress’s Paresh Dhanani, former leader of the Opposition in the Assembly who was Rupala’s rival, could secure only 3,73,724 votes. Thus the Union minister for fisheries won the prestigious Rajkot seat by a margin of 4,84,260, the highest among the eight seats of the Saurashtra-Kutch regions.

Rupala’s winning margin is the highest in the history of the Rajkot seat. Former Union minister Mohan Kundariya, the sitting BJP MP for Rajkot, won the 2019 election with a margin of 3.68 lakh votes and the 2014 election with a margin of 2.46 lakh votes. Rupala secured 67.37 per cent of total votes cast while Dhanani could manage only 29.35 per cent.

Rupala’s first direct election

Rupala, the 69-year-old veteran who was a member of the Rajya Sabha, was fighting his first direct election in 21 years. However, his campaign suffered an early setback after the Kshatriya community objected to his remarks made at a Dalit event that foreign rulers, including Britishers did all they could to persecute India and that even raja-maharajas (kings) bowed down to them and sought friendly ties with them by breaking bread with them and giving their daughters in marriage.

While Rupala subsequently apologised by releasing a video statement and also from public forums, Kshatriyas alleged the comments betrayed his views on their community in general and its women in particular. They demanded that he withdraw from the poll race. When he refused to bow down, protesting Kshatriyas demanded that the ruling BJP cancel his election ticket. When the saffron party did not budge, Kshatriyas gave a call to defeat Rupala and the BJP in the state. They held dharma rath yatras across the state, held sammelans and disrupted election campaign meetings of BJP leaders, including Rupala’s as well as Mandaviya, the Union health minister.

The continued protests forced state BJP president CR Paatil to appeal to Kshatriyas to forgive Rupala and vote for the BJP. A day after the polling ended on May 7, Rupala confessed that his campaign for the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat was the toughest period of his 40-year-long political career. He repeatedly apologised for his comments and requested voters not to punish Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for something he had said inadvertently.

The Kshatriya agitation was visibly intense in other seats like Jamangar, Kutch, Surendranagar and Anand. However, the BJP managed to retain those seats also.

Thus the final count of votes suggested that Kshatriyas did not have enough numbers and that their agitation against Rupala and the BJP failed to strike a chord with voters from other communities.

“Why talk about it when now it is clear that it has not had any impact,” the Union minister said when asked about the Kshatriya agitation against him and his party.

While talking to media persons in Rajkot after his victory, Rupala thanked Umaba, a religious figure from the Kshatriya community as well as other religious figures like Morari Bapu, Ramesh Oza, Devalma, Vijaydas of Satar, Bal Swami of Chharodi Gurukul for “blessing” him during his campaign while Kshatriyas were protesting.

Similarities with Mansukh Mandaviya’s candidature

In Porbandar, Mandaviya was also set to win the seat by more than 3.80 lakh votes. Fighting his first direct election since 2002, Mandaviya, a Rajya Sabha member, secured 6.25 lakh votes against his Congress rival’s 2.45 lakh votes, even as a few more votes were still being tallied.

Incidentally, both Rupala and Mandaviya contested the polls away from their home turfs. While Rupala hails from Amreli, Mandaviya is a native of Bhavnagar district. The BJP fielded them after denying tickets to Kundariya and Ramesh Dhaduk, sitting MPs for Rajkot and Porbandar, respectively.

Third term for Union minister Devusinh Chauhan

Union minister of state Devusinh Chauhan secured the Kheda Lok Sabha constituency for a third consecutive term with a margin of 3,57,758 votes over the Congress’s Kalu Dabhi. While Chauhan polled 7,44,435 votes, including 5,826 postal votes, to make a 63.31 per cent vote share, Dabhi polled 3,86,677 votes, including 5,021 postal votes, amounting to a 32.88 per cent vote share. NOTA in Kheda polled 18,824 votes.

During the counting, two electronic voting machines of the Mahuda Assembly segment and one from the Kapadvanj segment developed technical errors, prompting the election officers to count the VVPAT slips.

Dhanani said that while he was disappointed with the poll outcome, he was happy to find a place in the hearts of Rajkot. “I had entered the poll fray at the eleventh hour. For me, it was like a war that had broken out all of a sudden. I had entered the poll fray to give a fight and it is the prerogative of people to choose the winner. I had entered the fray hoping Rajkot will show a new direction to the nation. But unfortunately, while the country has taken a new path, Rajkot has continued on the same path,” the Congress candidate said. “However, I am extremely happy and grateful that I found space in the hearts of people of Rajkot as is evident from the votes I have got.”

Dhanani also said he had fought elections not to become an MP but to change “the system”. “We will analyse the result and start afresh for effecting a change in the system,” he added.