Scheduled Caste representation: BJP bags a dozen; Congress retains 2 in Gujarat

Gujarat assembly elections results were announced on Thursday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagging 156 of the 182 assembly seats, while the opposition Congress won 17 seats and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got 5 seats.

As far as the representation of the Scheduled Caste (SC) in the state assembly seats in Gujarat assembly polls is concerned, Congress lost two out of the four seats they had in 2017, while retaining two.

The BJP now has a dozen constituency seats of those reserved.

After a close fight until the 23rd round, Congress’ Jignesh Mevani won the SC reserved seat of Vadgam constituency, with total 93,848 votes over his BJP rival Manilal Vaghela who got 89,052 votes.

Manilal Vaghela, a Congress veteran and a 2012 legislator, had quit the party and joined BJP ahead of the 2022 elections.

Vaghela was disappointed with the party backing Mevani.

On the insistence of the Congress, Vaghela had vacated the seat for Mevani in 2017.

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The other SC seat which the Congress retained was by Shailesh Parmar on the Danilimda constituency in Ahmedabad.

Shailesh won with 68,906 votes over his BJP rival Naresh Vyas who secured 55,381 votes.

Congress leader Naushad Solanki lost the party’s SC representation from the Dasada constituency, where he lost to BJP’s PK Parmar, who secured 75,743 votes over Solanki’s 73,607. AAP’s Arvind Solanki got 10,060 votes.

Congress leader Praveen Muchadiya, a sitting legislator from Kalawad constituency, also lost to BJP’s Meghji Chavda who secured 58,788 votes over Muchadiya’s 24,159.

Chavda’s nearest rival was AAP’s Jignesh Solanki, who got 42,991 votes.

BJP on the other hand, not only retained al the ten seats but in also thumped its rivals over huge margins some stretching to one lakh votes.

The saffron party retained its Vadodara City seat with the sitting legislator Manish Vakil winning with 1,30,112 votes while Congress candidate Gunavantray Parmar getting 31,907 votes.

BJP’s Ishwarbhai Parmar, the sitting MLA from Bardoli won with 1,18,140 votes over Congress’s Pannaben Patel’s 28,478 votes.

In the Rajkot rural seat, the sitting MLA, Bhanuben Babariya secured 1,19,353 votes over Congress’s Karshan Bhatwar, 29,052 votes. AAP’s Vashram Sagathiya secured 70,749 votes.

At present, BJP holds the SC reserved seats of Gandhidham, Kadi, Idar, Asarwa, Dasada, Rajkot, Rural, Kalawad, Kodinar, Gadhada, Vadodra city and Bardoli.