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BJP fielded women as safe bet

The BJP has been making much of the fact that its women candidates won from 15 out of the 22 constituencies from where they were fielded by the party high command.

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AHMEDABAD: The BJP has been making much of the fact that its women candidates won from 15 out of the 22 constituencies from where they were fielded by the party high command.

The party undoubtedly set a new record this year by fielding women candidates from 22 constituencies. This was more than the number fielded by the party in all previous elections. Yet, an analysis of the nature of the 15 constituencies from which the party's woman candidates won this year makes it clear that their victory was no miracle by any standards.

According to some, Narendra Modi played it safe by fielding women candidates from the safest constituencies of the BJP. As a result, the party was able to secure an astonishing report card on its female candidates. Most of the constituencies from where its women candidates won, have a history of returning BJP nominees that goes back to 3-4 elections. Therefore, contrary to what BJP leaders want the people to believe, Modi's decision to allocate to women 22 seats out of a total of 182 was not really a risky move.
 
What is more significant about the BJP's haul of 117 seats this year is that the party won seats in all the regions in the state, save one - Central Gujarat. Further, it lost 39 of the seats it had won in 2002, but gained 29 new ones.

Neemaben Acharya was the BJP's nominee from Anjar in Kutch region. She won by a margin of 17,588 votes. Considering that Acharya had contested and won the seat as a Congress candidate in 2002 as well, she was apparently a safe bet. A change of sides doesn't seem to hurt her popularity.

Varshaben Doshi was the BJP candidate from Wadhavan constituency. She won by a margin of 6,902 votes. Wadhvan is a BJP stronghold which the party has won five times consecutively.

Both the Congress and the BJP fielded woman candidates from Rajkot (rural) constituency. In 2002, Shantaben of the Congress had won from here. This year, the Congress gave the ticket to Kantaben. Though Rajkot (rural) has the reputation of being a Congress stronghold, Bhavna Babaria of the BJP won the seat by a margin of 41,398 votes. It is being said that the Scheduled Caste factor played a key role in deciding the outcome of the election here.

Similarly, the BJP won from Jetpur constituency where its woman candidate, Jasuben Korat, defeated her nearest rival by a margin of 12,193 votes. The constituency is said to be a BJP stronghold as the party had won from here four times
consecutively before Korat was fielded here by the party this year.
 
The BJP fielded Vasuben Trivedi from Jamnagar. This constituency, too, has long been a BJP bastion. BJP candidates had won the seat five consecutive times prior to this year's elections.

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