Porbandar, Devbhumi Dwarka, Chhota Udepur: Districts that gave BJP a jolt in Gujarat

The SP got a major foothold, winning 20 of the 28 seats in Ranavav municipality and 14 of the 24 seats in the Kutiyana municipality where the youngest son of the late ‘Godmother’ Santokben Jadeja, Kana, made his debut.

Odedara claims she joined politics in 1995, and is related from her “husband’s side” to the Jadejas. Kana’s older brother Kandhal is the SP MLA from the Kutiyana seat, having won it on the party ticket for the first time in 2022. Before this, Kandhal was an MLA from the same seat from the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The victory for the SP is important as it upsets the BJP in Kutiyana. Although Odedara retains her seat, the party has lost its majority.

In 2018, the BJP had won 12 seats in Ranavav and the undivided NCP had won 16 seats.

In Chhota Udepur Municipality, which has 28 seats, the BJP secured eight while the Congress won one. The SP, which contested the polls for the first time, emerged as a surprise, bagging six seats while the BSP, which has significant influence in the area, bagged four. Four seats have gone to the Sarva Samaj Party and one to Bharat Navnirman Manch Party while four independents will also be seen as kingmakers in the upcoming days. SP candidate Mufizahmed Shaikh bagged his seat in Ward 5 of the municipality by just one vote, securing a total of 869 votes. The municipality had seen 72.65% voter turnout.

Mixed results in Devbhumi Dwarka

Of the three municipalities that went to polls from Devbhumi Dwarka – Dwarka, Bhanvad and Salaya — the BJP was completely wiped out in Salaya where the Congress got a majority with 15 of the 28 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party, which got 13 seats, could be a formidable opposition here.