Lok Sabha elections 2019: Saurashtra with 7 seats focus of all parties
Three of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rallies in Gujarat were held in Saurashtra. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi also addressed two of his five rallies in the state in Saurashtra region.
All 26 Lok Sabha constituencies in Gujarat will go to polls in third phase Tuesday. Around 4.3 crore voters will decide the fate of total 371 candidates.
The most high-profile contest will be in Gandhinagar constituency from where BJP chief Amit Shah is fighting a Lok Sabha election for the first time. The Congress is relying on its three-term Gandhinagar MLA C J Chavda to pull off an upset against Shah.
Read: All you need to know about Lok Sabha elections 2019
Surendranagar constituency in Saurashtra has the maximum number of candidates with 31 while Panchamhal constituency as the lowest number of candidates with six.
Saurashtra region, which sends seven of Gujarat’s 26 MPs, remained the focus for both the Congress and the BJP. In 2017 assembly elections which was held in the backdrop of Patidar agitation for OBC status, the BJP had suffered maximum loss in the region, and its tally was reduced to 99 in 182-member assembly. The Congress by winning 77 seats in that election had given its best performance since 1995.
Three of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rallies in Gujarat were held in Saurashtra. Congress chief Rahul Gandhi also addressed two of his five rallies in the state in Saurashtra region.
Read: All you need to know about Gujarat
Both Modi and Shah campaigned in Gujarat on Sunday, the last day of campaigning before the April 23 vote. Gandhi, who held the last rally on April 19, centered his campaigned around the Rafael jet deal, corruption and crony capitalism. Nationalism remained the focus of the PM’s campaign in his home state, where the BJP had won all 26 seats in 2014.
Shah preferred road shows to public rallies to drive home his point. His road show, before filing the nomination was a show of strength by the NDA with Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal and LJP Chief Ram Vilas Paswan in attendance.
Read: With turncoats from Congress, BJP looks to regain ground in Saurashtra
The state is likely to see interesting contest on constituencies like Anand and Amreli. In Anand, the BJP has fielded a new face Mitesh Patel against former Congress state president Bharatsinh Solanki, turning the contest into a Kshatriya (OBC) versus Patidar one.
In Amreli, the Congress has fielded Paresh Dhanani, leader of opposition, against the BJP veteran Naran Kachadiya.
