The battle for Saurashtra

That’s a cause for worry for the BJP since this peninsular region, with its 58 seats, holds the key to the seat of power. What seemed to be a cakewalk for the Narendra Modi government just six months ago has now turned into one of the most fiercely fought battles in the region.

This year, Modi is battling a resurgent Opposition and is up against a disgruntled set of Koli and Patel voters. The Congress has its sights on Gandhinagar and knows that to reach there, it has to pass through Saurashtra. More than the anti-incumbency factor against Modi, the party is said to be exploiting the discontentment among the Patels and the Kolis. If the BJP’s Patel dissidents have tried to pull away the Leuva Patels from the BJP, the Congress has allotted four more tickets to Koli leaders to win over the Koli community.

But the BJP is more worried about its own men than it is of the Congress. The Leuva Patel voters, who have significant presence in more than 15 seats in the region, are largely with rebel leader and former chief minister Keshubhai Patel. Keshubhai’s decision to not campaign for the BJP and instead, support the Sardar Patel Utkarsh Samiti, an anti-Modi platform, is likely to hurt Modi. To complicate matters, another former chief minister, Suresh Mehta, resigned on Sunday. Both Keshubhai and Mehta are highly influential among voters in the region.

The fight over Saurashtra, which was fought on the development plank, first turned into a personality clash as both Modi and Sonia Gandhi sparred and then, turned communal as Modi justified the encounter killing of Sohrabbudin Sheikh. But it remains to be seen if raking the communal angle will help Modi in Saurashtrha, where four BJP rebels—Bavku Ughad, Balu Tanti, Bechar Bhadani and Narendrasinh Jadeja—are contesting on Congress tickets.

1 crore voters

8 districts—Rajkot, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kutch, Surendranagar, Amreli and Porbandar—go to polls

58 seats

11,892 polling booths

60,000 poll employees