Bharuch: BJP candidate from Bharuch Lok Sabha constituency Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava won by over 85,000 votes against AAP candidate Chaitarbhai Damjibhai Vasava on Tuesday. This is his third consecutive victory from the seat.
Once a stronghold of late Veteran Congress leader and Sonia Gandhi's political advisor Ahmed Patel, Bharuch has emerged as a BJP bastion in recent years. The saffron party has never lost the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat since 1989 with the saffron party exuding confidence in its sitting MP Vasova who was yet again nominated as the party candidate.
Late Congress veteran Ahmed Patel had held the fort for the grand old party from 1977 till 1984. In the tribal dominated Lok Sabha constituency comprising seven assembly segments, the tribal vote was the deciding factor in the electoral politics of Bharuch seat.
No surprises then that parties tend to field tribal candidates from the seat. Besides BJP's Mansukhbhai Vasova, who too is a tribal, AAP candidate Chaitar Vasava who was fielded by the INDIA alliance under a pre-poll understanding between the AAP and Congress, was seen as Mansukh Vasava's main contender.
Besides the BJP and the AAP, the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) too jumped into the electoral fray and announced party candidate Dilip Vasava to contest from Bharuch seat. The BAP was formed in 2023 in Rajasthan where it won three assembly seats. The party also won an assembly seat in the Madhya Pradesh assembly elections last year. Chhotu Vasava (78) joined the party in March this year.
2024 Polls: Voting for the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat of Gujarat was held in the 3rd phase of Lok Sabha election 2024 on May 7. According to the Election Commission of India, the seat recorded a voter turnout of 69.16 percent. Pertinently, all 25 of 26 Lok Sabha seats went to the polls in the 3rd phase itself. BJP candidate for Surat Lok Sabha seat, Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed after Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani's nomination was rejected by the election authorities during the nomination phase.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, sitting BJP MP Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava retained the seat defeating Congress candidate Sherkhan Abdulsakur Pathan by a margin of over 3.34 lakh votes. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Vasava won the seat against Congress candidate Patel Jayeshbhai Ambalalbhai (Jayesh Kaka) by over 1.53 lakh votes.
