Infighting to dent Congress chances

LS CONSTITUENCY WATCH/AMRELI

The Amreli parliamentary seat is considered to be a Bharatiya Janata Party stronghold. The party's candidate Dileepbhai Sanghani is aiming for his fifth consecutive term.

Though the Congress has not officially declared its candidate for the seat, it is likely to allot the ticket to Virjibhai Thumar.

While Sanghani has won the seat on the previous four occasions the margin of his victory has been on the decline.

In the 1999 election, this constituency had 8,74,521 voters. Of these only 4,16,598 (47.64 per cent) exercised their franchise. 2,17,670 votes (53.42 per cent) where cast in favour of the BJP's Dileepbhai Sanghani. He defeated the nearest Congress candidate Virjibhai Thumar by 36,324 votes.

In 1998, Sanghani defeated the Congress' Manubhai Kotadiya by 1,22,173 votes. In 1996, he defeated Navinchandra Ravani of the Congress by 1,08,369 votes.

Sanghani has been instrumental in solving the region's problem of water scarcity for drinking and irrigation. 698 villages were hit by water shortage in the past. He has also contributed to the setting up of the 2000 MW Pipavav power project and the Pipavav port.

Differences in the Congress over the choice of candidate for Amreli may help Sanghani. While one group within the Congress is backing Thumar, the other is opposing his candidature.

The Amreli Lok Sabha constituency covers the Amreli, Lathi, Babara, Dhari, Kodinar, Rajula and Savarkundala Assembly areas.

Of these, only Amreli has a Congress MLA while the rest have BJP representatives. Four major castes "" Patels, Bramhins, Kolis, and Ahirs "" dominate this constituency.