Clash of Kolis in Surendranagar

LS CONSTITUENCY WATCH

It is expected to be a tough fight between the two powerful Koli candidates in the ceramic district of Saurashtra. Somabhai Koli Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will take on the Congress' Savsibhai Makwana for the Surendranagar Lok Sabha seat.

Makwana (brother of late MLA Karamsi Makwana) is the sitting Member of Parliament and his contesting for the second time. But, he is likely to face tough competition from Patel, who is backed by Purusottam Solanki, an influential leader in the 16 Koli dominated Assembly seats of Saurashtra.

Surendranagar has been a Koli dominated seat and the voting of this community plays a vital roll in deciding the outcome for the seat. This community is mainly located in the Chotila, Sayla, Wankaner, than and Limdi talukas. Makwana is from the Sayla taluka and has been taluka panchayat president there.

Of the seven Assembly seats in the Surendranagar constituency, the Wankaner (Rajkot district), Wadhvan, Muli, Chotila and Dhrangdhra seats were won by the BJP. The Patdi and Limdi Assembly seats have Congress MLAs. All municipalities in Surendranagar are controlled by the BJP, while the Congress controls the district panchayat.

In the last five elections, the BJP has won the Surendranagar seat three times and the congress has won twice. In 1989 Somabhai Patel defeated Digvijaysinh Zala, a member of the princely family of the Wankaner state and a former environment minister in the Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi Cabinets, by a huge margin. Patel bagged 62.49 per cent of the votes, while got 31.49 per cent.

In 1991, Patel defeated Sanat Mehta as the Congress. Patel got 49.1 per cent votes and Sanat Mehta 46.28 per cent votes. In 1996, Brahmin voters consolidated in favour of Sanat Mehta of the Congress and Patel was defeated by a big margin.

This time Sanat got 56.23 per cent votes and Patel only 37.96 per cent votes. After the Khazorao episode, Patel joined Shankersinh Vaghela's Rashtriya Janata Party.

In 1998, Bhavna Dave, the BJP candidate from Surendranagar, defeated Sanat Mehta of the Congress. In 1999, Makwana defeated Dave. He secured 52.11 per cent of the votes and Dave got 46.59 per cent votes. The fact that Makwana was a local Koli while Dave was from Ahmedabad played a crucial role in Dave's loss.

This is the first time that both the BJP and the Congress have played Koli card and fielded candidates of the caste. So, it will be the other castes like the Brahmins and the Darbars that will decide who wins the Surendranagar seat.