In milk city, Cong is ‘taste of India'

Anand, the cradle of India's white revolution and milk cooperative sector, has been a traditional Congress bastion with stalwarts like Ishwarbhai Chavda and Madhavsinh Solanki having been its MP and MLA respectively. This time, too, it seems poised to go the Congress way, unless the BJP has an ace up its sleeve.

Madhavsinh Solanki had successfully milked the KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim) combination here. This equation is still the mainstay of his son and sitting MP, Bharatsinh Solanki. Ishwarbhai Chavda, senior Solanki's father-in-law, was elected MP from Anand in 1980, 1984, 1991, 1996 and 1998.

In 1999, Chavda lost to BJP's Dipak Sathi, but in 2004 the seat went back to Congress when Bharatsinh won. Interestingly, this time the BJP has put up Dipak Sathi who was denied party ticket in 2004 after his involvement in Charotar Nagrik Cooperative Bank scam surfaced. The BJP has won the seat only two times, in 1989 and 1999.

In the recent delimitation exercise, a new seat, Anklav has been created by merging some villages from Borsad, Bhadran and Sarsa assembly segments. While five of the seven assembly segments — Khambhat, Borsad, Anand, Petlad and Sojitra — (before delimitation) have been retained in Anand, Umreth has been taken out of Kheda and made part of Anand constituency.

Since it is traditionally a Congress seat, it will benefit the party. Of the seven assembly segments, Borsad, Umreth and Petlad are with the Congress, while Khambhat, Anand and Sojitra are with the BJP (Anklav is a new seat).

The total electorate in the constituency is around 13.94 lakh. The OBC Kshatriya voters, whom the Congress is hoping to woo successfully again, number around 4 lakh. The next largest community is Patels (around 2 lakh), followed by Dalits (1.7 lakh) and Muslims (1.2 lakh).

The Congress hold on the Kaira Milk Producers' Union as well as the Charotar Cooperative Bank, which have around 2 lakh members, will also help the party. Says Borsad MLA and Bharatsinh's cousin, Amit Chavda: "Anand and Kheda have around 1,100 cooperative mandlis which have some 2 lakh members."

Says Nimesh Joshi, faculty at SEMCOM College in Vallabh Vidyanagar: "Bharatsinh has been successful in getting his community's vote.

The BJP is not strong because it has not been able to find a strong candidate from here. There is no anti-incumbency factor against Bharatsinh and Sathi has not been active in politics for the last five years."

The constituency has a diverse geographical and cultural mix, from the ancient port town of Khambhat to NRG-funds rich Anand, which boasts of GCMMF and several educational institutions like Irma, to relatively underdeveloped Sojitra and Borsad.

The poll issues vary in different parts of the constituency. In Khambhat, the locals complain about the bad quality of water. "It is not even fit enough to bathe," they say. The rural areas in Borsad, Sojitra and Petlad are still not well-developed, and there are few employment opportunities. Bharatsinh claims he has approached the Centre with proposals to set up food processing industries in the district.

The BJP, which is on the back foot on the issue of Sathi's tainted image, is banking on the work done by him when he was the MP, as well as the achievements of the state
government.

"Sathi is a very friendly and accessible person. When he was MP, he had started a Demu train from here to Ahmedabad," says Mahesh Patel, Anand district BJP president. "Bharatsinh only wins because of his community votes. But the OBC community, too, does not blindly vote for the Congress now. They have become discerning and will vote on the merit of the candidate," he adds.

Meanwhile, the Congress is confident of its win on the back of work done by Bharatsinh Solanki and various achievements of the UPA government. Borsad MLA Chavda says: "During the UPA government rule, development works entailing an expenditure of Rs400 crore were completed in Anand district. Roads have been built, and farmers and daily wagers have benefited from the Centre's schemes. Around 40,000 rural households have been electrified."