Six-time MP is facing the toughest battle of his life
An impressive electoral record
of over two decades in the tribal-dominated
Mandvi (ST) Lok Sabha constituency notwithstanding,
Congress MP Chhitubhai Gamit of the dissolved Lok
Sabha will find it difficult to retain the seat during
the elections following a triangular fight here.
There are a total of six candidates in the fray. Prominent
among them are Mansinh Patel of the Bharatiya Janata
Party who was defeated by Gamit in the last Lok Sabha
election and Sahdev Chaudhary, an independent
candidate who was suspended from the Congress for
his anti-party activities. However, the other three
candidates do not have much of a base here.
Mandvi (ST), a Congress bastion since 1957, has sent
Chhagan Kedaria as its first representative to the
Centre, followed by Amarsinh Chaudhary from the Congress in
1971. From 1977 Gamit has represented the constituency
for six consecutive terms, and even during the
1977 Janata
Party wave, Mandvi remained loyal to the Congress.
The tribal-dominated constituency consists of Nizar,
Songadh, Vyara, Mahuva, Bardoli, Kamrej and Chikhli
assembly segments, and has a total of 10,43,032
voters.
The suspended vice-president of Gujarat Pradesh
Congress Committee, Sahdev Chaudhary,
is making full use of his arsenal to ensure that his rival
candidate Gamit should be defeated in his seventh go
from Mandvi Lok Sabha seat. Chaudhary was
suspended from the party twice in 1988 and 1997, for
anti-party activities.
In the 1996 elections, Gamit won this seat with a
lower margin of about 30,000 votes against the BJP's
Mansinh Patel. Bardoli was one of the seven assembly
segments of Mandvi parliamentary seat which has seen a
successful Congress rally by star campaigner Sonia
Gandhi on January 23.
The other candidate who matters is Ramanbhai
Chaudhary (JD), a sitting MLA from Mangrol who
joined the BJP after quitting the Communist Party during the 1995
election. However, his association with the BJP snapped
after he emerged victorious from Mangrol.
Ramanbhai was expelled from the BJP for his anti-party
stand. The other candidate is Sonaben Patel of
the Communist Party of India and Sahdev B Chaudhary,
an independent.
Elections '98
Tell us what you think of this report
|