| Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was in Porbandar to campaign for her party just a week ago. But observers say it was too little, too late. |
| Porbander and nearby Jamnagar, represented for years by Daulatsinh Jadeja, father of cricketer Ajay Jadeja, were considered Congress bastions. |
| It was under Congress rule that mafia activity in the region grew. To clip the wings of a woman don (around whom Bollywood made a film) the Congress set up rival ganglords. |
| Partly as a result of this move, the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) was virtually invited to the area. Law and order is better regulated now than before. |
| In this election, the BJP has replaced its sitting MP Gordhanbhai Javia, by erstwhile MP Harilal Madhavji Patel, a Kadva Patel candidate. |
| This caste is influential and Javia has yielded in favour of a younger leader from the dominant caste in the constituency. |
| The Congress has not officially declared its candidate yet. Sonia Gandhi is keen to field Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Tushar Gandhi, from the constituency, but a leader belonging to the Cooperative movement from Rajkot district, Vithalbhai Radadia, who is also a Congress MLA, could get the seat. |
| The Congress's vote share in the seat has been going down steadily. It got an average of 31 per cent votes in the last few polls. |
| By contrast, the BJP has been able to poll 57 per cent of the vote since 1991. |
| The constituency is a complex one, both from the caste and regional point of view. If Rajkot is a Leuva Patel dominated constituency and a stronghold of Congress leader Radadia, the Upleta segment is a stronghold of BJP. Part of the constituency fall in Junagarh, the princely state that famously voted to stay with India just after the partition. |
| Although the BJP has changed its candidate, it is unlikely that this will affect the party adversely. |
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