Records at stake

LS CONSTITUENCY WATCH/DHANDHUKA

If one considers the track record of Ratilal Varma, the sitting member of parliament (MP) from the Dhandhuka constituency, only a miracle can save the Congress this time.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Varma, six time victorious from this seat since 1989, marked his presence in the constituency in the 1984 elections.

Though the Congress candidate Narsinh Makwana managed to win that time, the year witnessed a major erosion in the party's vote bank.

Past defeats apart, the Congress has not yet decided its candidate for the Dhandhuka seat which is reserved for scheduled casts. Names of old Congress leaders' sons are doing the rounds at the Congress high command. Sajyay Makwana, son of Narsinh Makwana, is one of them.

The Dhandhuka seat turned in favour of the BJP in the 1989 elections, when Varma defeated Narsinh Makwana of the Congress by a margin of over 1.40 lakh votes. Varma got a 64.10 per cent share of votes that time, while Makwana's share was 32.61 per cent.

Again in 1991 Varma defeated Narsinh Makwana by 3,0516 votes, a 52.24 per cent share against Makwana's share of 44.35 per cent.

In 1996 Varma defeated Motibhai Chavda of the Congress by 30,229 votes. Varma consolidated 52.24 per cent of the votes and Chavda got only a 41.35 per cent share.

It was a triangular contest between the BJP, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Party of Shankersinh Waghela in 1996.

Varma defeated Chavda by a narrow margin of 1,6395 votes. But the RJP candidate Pravin Rashtrapal (now the sitting MP from Patan) dented the BJP vote bank by gaining 74,876 votes. The BJP's vote share was 44.36 per cent, Congress at 41.57 per cent and the RJP took away 12.77 per cent of votes.

In the 1991 elections Varma defeated Manubhai Parmar of the Congress by 52,023 votes. Varma got 49.71 per cent of votes and Parmar got 48.58 per cent of votes polled.

Dhandhuka was a Congress-dominated seat before 1989 and Yogendra Mankwana and Narsinh Makwana were being elected from this constituency.

The Dhandhuka constituency consists of Botad and Gadhda assembly segments of the Bhavnagar district, and Dhandhuka, Dholka, Bavla, Mandal and Viramgam assembly segments of the Ahmedabad district.

Of the seven segments, six have BJP member of legislative assemblies (MLA) and only the Gadhada assembly segment is the Congress' strong hold.

The district panchayat of Ahmedabad is controlled by the BJP whereas all the municipalities are BJP-controlled.