Tough for Cong in Mahatma Gandhi's birthplace

LS CONSTITUENCY WATCH

The Bharatiya Janata Party has replaced its sitting member of Parliament Gordhanbhai Javia with Harilal Madhavji Patel for the Porbandar Lok Sabha constituency.

Though the Congress has not officially declared its candidate for the seat, the party is likely to nominate Vithalbhai Radadia, the Congress MLA from Dhoraji-Jamkandorna.

The performance of the Congress in Mahatma Gandhi's land (Gandhiji was born in Porbandar) has been poor in the last five Lok Sabha elections. The party could secure 31 per cent votes. Since 1991, the BJP has secured the seat, polling more than 57 per cent of the votes.

In 1991, the BJP candidate Harilal Madhavji Patel defeated the Janata Dal's Balvant Manvar with a margin of 89048 votes. In 1996, Gordhanbahi Javia of the BJP defeated Pethalji Chavda of the Congress by 75000 votes.

In 1998, Gordhanbhai Javia defeated Bharat Odedra, son of ex-MP, Maldeoji Odedra and a Maher candidate, by a margin of 1.27 lakh votes. In 1999, Javia defeated the Congress' Balvan Manvar by 1.01 lakh votes.

The Porbandar constituency is a complex one, with seven Assembly constituencies spread across four districts. Rajkot district's Dhoraji-Jamkandorna Assembly constituency is dominated by Leuva Patels and is a stronghold of Vithalbhai Radadia. The Kadva Patel dominated Upleta constituency has been won by the BJP in the last three Assembly polls.

The Porbandar Assembly constituency is dominated by Mahers and was bagged by Arjunbhai Modhvadia, a Congress nominee. Kutiana-Ranavav is again a Maher community base and was won by Karsanbhai Odedra of the BJP in the last Assembly polls.

The LS constituency has two assembly seats in the Junagardh district. Of these, Bantva-Manavadar, a Kadva Patel dominated seat, was bagged by the BJP in last Assembly polls while the Mangrol seat (a Koli dominated seat) was won by the Congress' Chandrika Chudasama.

The Jamjodhpur Assembly constituency of Jamnagar district is also a Kadva Patel dominated area and a stronghold of BJP MLA Chimanlal Saparia.

Communitywise, Porbandar has approximately 2 lakh Kadva Patel voters, 1.25 lakh Leuva Patel voters, 1.25 lakh Koli voters, 1 lakh each Dalits and Minorities, 1 lakh Maher voters and 90 thousand Brahmin voters.