A battle of castes in Jamnagar

The Jamnagar Lok Sabha elections is likely to witness a contest between the two major caste groups in the district. While the Bharatiya Janata Party is repeating its sitting MP Chandresh Patel, the Congress is likely to name an Ahir candidate Vikram Madam.

The Jamnagar Lok Sabha constituency is dominated by three major castes. It has approximately two lakh Patels (including Kadva and Leuva voters), 1.16 lakh Ahirs and about one lakh Satvara voters. While the BJP is banking on the Patel community, the Congress is targeting the Ahirs.

The Jamnagar Lok Sabha constituency comprises the Jodia, Jamnagar (city), Jamnagar (rural), Kalavad, Bhanvad, Khanbhalia and Dwarka Assembly constituencies. Of these, Bhanvad (Madam is the sitting MLA here), Jamnagar (rural) and Dwarka have Congress MLAs, while the other five are BJP strongholds.

Chandresh Patel has been winning the Jamnagar Lok Sabha seat since 1989 and has consistently bagged close to 50 per cent of the valid votes.

In 1989 he defeated Dolatsinh Jadeja, in 1991 be defeated Urmilaben Chimanbhai Patel (wife of former Gujarat chief minister Chimanbhai Patel) and in 1996 and 1998 he defeated Bhikhubhai Varotaria. In the last Lok Sabha polls, Patel defeated Raghavjibhai Patel.

However, there has been a sharp reduction in the margin of victories for Patel in the recent years. He won in 1998 with a margin of 60115 votes. This fell to 35369 votes in 1999.

Looking at the trends in the last two Assembly elections, there has been a minor swing in favour of the Congress. The total votes polled by the Congress candidates has risen from 26 per cent (51 per cent for the BJP candidate) in the 1998 Assembly polls to 43 per cent (BJP's vote share was 47 per cent) in 2002.

In the 1998 assembly polls, out of the eight seats in Jamnagar district (the Jamjodhpur, though located in Jamnagar district, falls under the Porbandar Lok Sabha constituency), the BJP bagged six and Congress secured Jodia and Dwarka. In the last Assembly polls the BJP won five and the Congress three seats.

But the BJP candidate captured the Congress stronghold of Jodia where Raghavji Patel won.

The BJP also put up a good show in the last local self-government elections. It won all the municipalities.