During the 1984 Lok Sabha polls, which were held after former PM Indira Gandhi's assassination, 426 members of Congress won across India. While only two candidates of BJP could make to Lok Sabha, Mehsana was one of those two seats where Dr AK Patel, BJP candidate won.Since then, the seat is believed to be a strong fortress of BJP as majority chunk of voters that belong to Patel community here have always remained committed to BJP. Out of the 9 Lok Sabha polls held thereafter, Congress candidates could win twice only in 1999 and 2004. But, the table turned suddenly in 2017 assembly polls in Gujarat, wherein results of all the seats falling in the constituency showed deflection. There are seven assembly seats including Unjha, Visnagar, Bechraji, Kadi, Mehsana, Vijapur and Mansa.Though BJP candidates won over four seats, the total votes they got remained lesser than total votes went to Congress candidates. In aggregate, all seven BJP candidates got only 4,64, 059 votes while that of Congress candidates remained 5,58,385.The entire swing could be attributed to the agitations ran by Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor in the state before assembly polls.Looking at the equations of last Lok Sabha polls held in 2014, BJP candidate Jayshreeben Patel won with the margin of more than 2 lakh votes against Congress' Jivabhai Patel. It is noteworthy that deputy chief minister Nitin Patel was given the responsibility of these seats and he himself also was the candidate from Mehsana assembly seat. Patel also could manage his victory with the margin of 7,137 votes only. Now the party is considering to field Nitin Patel as the candidate for Lok Sabha polls, sources within the party said. He was called by Gujarat BJP in-charge Om Mathur on Thursday for meeting at party headquarter Shri Kamalam and the sources said that the meeting was to convince Nitin Patel to contest Lok Sabha polls. Patel, however, denied any such development and said that he was there to discuss different issues related to the party's poll preparations."The party will select a proper candidate for Lok Sabha polls. We need to wait for the announcement," Nitin Patel said.The party experienced a great confusion over the selection of candidate as the Patel community have different factions within the community. The Patel community here has different groups divided on the basis of unions of villages. "The BJP is considering to field the candidate that is having neutral image and acceptance for all the groups of Patel community. Nitin Patel is the leader in party whom entire Patel community can accept undoubtedly," added the party leader. The leader further added that Nitin Patel played a crucial role in defecting Congress leaders like former MP Jivabhai Patel and MLA from Unjha Dr Asha Patel into BJP recently.

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