Infighting, the common enemy

LOK SABHA CONSTITUENCY WATCH/KUTCH

While the Congress is still undecided over its candidate for the Kutch seat, the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) candidate and sitting member of Parliament (MP) Puspadan Gadhvi is seeking a fourth consecutive re-election from this seat.

Both the parties are troubled by infighting within the ranks and files at the district level.

The Congress appears to be divided on naming the candidate for this seat. The faction owing allegiance to Ahmed Patel (Congress general secretary) is in favour of granting the seat to Shailendrasinh Jadeja, while another group favours former MP Haribhai Patel.

Meanwhile, the Shankersinh Vaghela camp is backing Babubhai Meghji Shah or his daughter Jagruti Shah, who is the district panchayat president.

Despite the rehabilitation efforts of the state government being acknowledged by international agencies, the BJP lost four seats of Bhuj, Anjar, Rapar and Mandvi in the last Assembly polls. This was primarily because of severe infighting within the party in the district.

Former Gujarat chief minister Suresh Mehta was defeated for the first time from his traditional Mandvi seat, while Keshubhai Patel's (former CM) confidante Mukesh Zaveri lost from Bhuj.

After the earthquake, the foundation of the BJP in the Kutch region has been weakened. The only consolation for the party had was that it could snatch the traditional and minority dominated seat of Abdasa and retain the Mundra Assembly seat.

With Chief Minister Narendra Modi's Viranjali Yatra to bring back the mortal remains of freedom fighter Shyamji Krishna Varma from Geneva and the completion of the Narmada pipeline project, the BJP may have strengthened its base in the district.

Recently, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee also inaugurated modern medical facilities in the Kutch which will also help the party.

Looking back to the past five Lok Sabha election results, the BJP has had the upper hand over the Congress, winning four times. In 1989 Babubhai Meghji Shah of the BJP defeated sitting MP Usha Thakker of the Congress by over 80 thousand votes. Babubhai got 57.72 percent of votes and Thakker 37.11 per cent votes.

In the 1991 Lok Sabha elections, Harilal Patel of the Congress defeated Babu Meghji Shah of the BJP by a margin of 33 thousand votes.

In 1996, Puspadan Gadhvi of BJP snatched the seat from the Congress, defeating Dinesh Patel of the Congress by over a lakh votes. In 1998 Gadhvi again defeated his Congress rival Mahesh Thakker by a margin of about 61 thousand votes. He got 58.37 per cent votes against Thakker's 35.39 per cent votes.

In 1999 Babubhai Meghji Shah shifted to the Congress and contested from Kutch. He, however, lost to Gadhvi by just 4315 votes. The vote share difference was just 1.13 per cent between the two.

The Congress won four of the six Assembly seats under the Kutch constituency while the BJP won two. The district panchayat and taluka panchayats are controlled by the Congress, but the BJP has control over all municipalities.