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Constituency overview
Larger than Denmark in size, Kutch is the third largest constituency and the largest district in India. It is reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. After its inception in 1952, the first MP of Kutch was Congress’s Bhawanji Khimji. He was re-elected in 1957.
It was in 1989 when the BJP first won the seat, which it has retained seven times since 1996. BJP leader Pushpdan Gadhavi was elected from the constituency for four terms between 1996 and 2004.
In 2009, the voters in the constituency sent the BJP’s Poonamben Jat to Lok Sabha, followed by Vinod Chavda in 2014. Chavda was re-elected in 2019.
MP Profile
A lawyer by profession, Chavda, 45, started his political career in the BJP Yuva Morcha (youth wing) of Kutch district where he handled various responsibilities for eight years. For three years, he was a member of Kutch district’s BJP SC Morcha.
Within a month of being elected as an MP in 2014, he was credited for setting up a first-of-its kind centre for public interaction — Jan Sampark — in Bhuj and a similar office at Kutch’s economic and industrial hub, Gandhidham, once a week to resolve issues of locals.
Claiming to have met over 26,000 locals in the past five years, Chavda says he has attended nearly 4,300 events, sent 210 e-mails to foreign ambassadors and 3,227 e-mails to the Central government and the state government for administrative works. He is also known for taking slum children from his constituency to eat out in restaurants on his birthday.
Committees he is part of:
Member Joint Committee on Offices of Profit
Member Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice
Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment
MPLAD funds lowdown
From his MPLAD funds, the Kutch MP has given 250 air coolers for BSF personnel, 20 tricycles each for senior citizens and differently abled at state transport bus depots of Kutch. He has majorly contributed under the government’s Swachhata Abhiyan, and has distributed more than 100 dustbins under the cleanliness campaign at Bhuj bus station and to every school in Anjar, government hospitals and temples. He also utilised the MP funds for German technology-based artificial limbs, patient ambulance vehicles, RO plants and computers in schools, fodder godown for cows. Also, during the pandemic, he contributed Rs 1 crore for the Kutch-Morbi administration, and Rs 1 crore to the Health Ministry from his MPLAD funds.
Questions asked in Parliament
His questions were linked to ministries of defence, women and child development, law and justice, road transport and highways, tourism education, environment among others. From raising queries on ‘One Nation, One Election’, he asked questions related to foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence sector.
He has asked if the Central government has conducted any survey or study regarding sharp turns, potholes, steep grades, narrow streets, single lane or other accident prone points and the need for service roads, overbridges and underpasses generally on National Highways in Gujarat particularly in Bhuj, Abdasa, Gandhidham, Rapar, Mandevi and Anjar districts.
He has also raised issues like promoting the value of Indian culture in education, whether the government has any control on the number of foreign news portals running without any requisite license permission; violence against medical professionals and production of generic drugs.
Participation in Debates
Need for super fast train or Duronto train from Kutch to Delhi
To introduce a new train service between Kutch and Delhi
To upgrade Bhuj Airport as an international airport, and also operate Air India Flight service between Bhuj and Mumbai on a daily basis and also introduce a direct flight between Bhuj and Delhi
To set up a passport seva kendra in Morbi
Regarding absence of a large river or dam in Kutch
