Rajkot: The Rajkot West in Gujarat is considered a bastion for BJP as the voters in the constituency are electing the leaders from BJP for the past many years. Hence, many leaders in the party are always in the race to contest from this seat. Notably, this seat has much significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi entered the fray from this seat for the first time. And now, the BJP has fielded Darshita Shah, who has earlier served as the Mayor, from the seat while Congress has given a ticket to Mansuk Kalaria to lure Patidar voters.
Going by the electoral history of the seat, the voters have played a key role in re-electing the ruling party candidates, which can be an advantage to the BJP. However, if the mood of the people changes amid the opposition Congress raising the issues of inflation, education, infrastructure and connectivity, the fight would be tough.
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In an interview with ETV Bharat, Devendra Jani, a senior journalist from Rajkot, said that this seat has already received attention as it is seen as a BJP bastion. Only seasoned BJP leaders have been contesting from this seat for the past many years and whoever contested from this seat enjoyed a good political career. For instance, Narendra Modi, Vijay Rupani and Vajubhai Wala, entered the fray from the constituency and romped home. For the first time in the history of the Rajkot seat, the BJP gave the ticket to a female contender, Darshita Shah. In the past, the BJP did not field any female candidate from this seat.
The Rajkot West seat so far had two Chief Ministers and one Finance Minister. Initially, Vajubhai Vala contested from this seat and served as the Finance Minister and later has bee appointed as Karnataka Governor. Later, Vijay Rupani contested from the Rajkot West constituency and was elected as the Chief Minister. Additionally, there is a notion that whoever contests the Rajkot West seat eventually becomes a Chief Minister or Minister.
The Rajkot West constituency has a total of 3.14 lakh voters. The majority of voters in this constituency, which is around 72,000 are Patidars. There are 44,000 Brahmin voters, 30,000 Vanik Samaj voters and 24,000 Lohana voters. Notably, 1.70 lakh Savarna votes are crucial and as a result of the significant support of upper voters in this area, BJP has a firm hold on this seat.
