Considering the scale of 16th general elections, bypolls of seven Gujarat Assembly segments — which are happening simultaneously with lok Sabha elections on April 30 — hardly matter.However, of the 26 lok Sabha seats in the State, the by-elections will have an impact on five lok Sabha constituencies.
Both the major political parties — the Congress and the BJP — have distributed tickets for Assembly segments keeping the equations of five lok Sabha constituencies in mind.
“Winning or losing in the Assembly elections doesn’t matter, as it wouldn’t affect the current BJP-led Government in Gandhinagar. However, the selection of candidates has been done considering the criteria of their overall impact in their respective constituencies,” said a senior Congress leader. Even, the senior leaders in Gujarat BJP opined the same.
Equations of caste, creed and reputation of individual candidates in respective constituencies were taken into consideration at the time of allocation of Assembly segment tickets. Five lok Sabha constituencies, which are expected to have impact of Assembly bypolls, include Kutch under which Abadasa and Rapar Assembly segments fall, Junagadh under which Somnath & Visavadar come and Amreli, Sabarkantha and Bardoli lok Sabha constituency under which lathi, Himatnagar and Mandavi segments fall respectively. As far as Kutch constituency is concerned the Congress has fielded party’s national spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil from Kshtriya dominated Abadasa constituency.
Gohil, who was also the leader of Opposition, lost from Bhavnagar constituency in the last Assembly elections in 2012. In another Kutch Assembly segment Rapar, the Congress has fielded former Finance Minister in Shankersinh Vaghela Government. The BJP has given ticket to Chhabil Patel, who left the Congress to join the BJP. Patel’s nomination would help the BJP to attract Patel votes in Kutch.
The saffron party strategically fielded Bharat Patel, son of former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel from Visavadar and Jasa Barad from Somnath, both powerful candidates would fetch votes from leuva Patel and Karadia Rajput communities in Junagadh lok Sabha constituency.
The Congress also tried to woo Patels and lohana voters by allotting tickets to Harshad Ribadia and Dr Nishant Chotai.
Both the parties have tried to balance upon caste equations in tribal dominated Madavi segment keeping Bardoli lok Sabha seat in mind and fielded tribal candidates. Same is the case with Himatnagar and lathi constituencies where Kshtriya and Patel candidates were given importance.