Tripartite contest has been predicted in six seats where prospects of majors seem bleak.
Stalwarts from Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are having to spend sleepless nights worried that smaller fries pitted against them might rob them of valuable votes. These are candidates nominated by smaller parties like MahaGujarat Janata Party (MJP), NCP, SP and BSP who pose a threat to toppling major parties' applecart.
At least in six parliamentary constituencies in the state, namely, Bhavnagar, Surat, Patan, Mehsana and Ahmedabad East, Bharuch and Surendranagar, the contest would be tripartite with candidates of smaller parties pushing the prospects of either the BJP or the Congress candidates to uncertainty.
The state which will go on the hustings on April 30, has a total number of 359 candidates in the fray for 29 Lok Sabha seats. In Bhavnagar, the BJP and the Congress have fielded a Kshatriya candidate, where the rebel leader and controversial former BJP minister of state for home, Gordhan Zadaphia, is also in the fray as the president of his newly-formed MahaGujarat Janata Party (MJP).
Zadaphia is likely to cut into BJP votes, as he belongs to Patel community, which is electorally dominant community in the constituency. The BJP traditionally depended on the Patel votebank but if Zadaphia manages to split it, the divided ballot would affect the saffron brigade's candidate Rajendrasinh Rana's fifth term at the parliament from the constituency.
"This time, results of the Lok Sabha polls in Gujarat will surprise all," is what the rebel leader, Zadaphia, had to say when asked about the poll results.
According to Congress leader Shaktisinh Gohil, Zadaphia will help Congress' cause by eating into the BJP votes. In Patan, the BJP has fielded former Congress MLA Bhavsinh Rathore to contest against Dehgam MLA and Congress candidate Jagdish Thakor. Both candidates belong to the Thakor community, which forms the largest group in the population of the constituency.
Here also, MJP has fielded another locally powerful candidate, NP Patel, who is a local industrialist which may swerve off the local mandate in his favour. Patel is likely to corner Patel votes, a prospect in which case the BJP's chances may get affected as the Thakor votes are likely to split between the BJP and Congress, while the Congress may pull all the minorities and other OBC castes votes in their support.
Therefore, to contain the damage, the BJP has asked the Patan MLA and state revenue minister Anandiben Patel and state BJP general secretary Jayantibhai Barot to ensure the Patels votes in their favour.
In Surat too, the BJP candidate Darshna Jardosh is facing two strong candidates - Fakir Chauhan of MJP and Dhiru Gajera of Congress - in the hustings. Interestingly, all the three candidates have roots in the BJP. But both Gajera and Chauhan had left the lotus ahead of the last assembly polls on personal differences.
(with inputs from agencies)
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