Vadgam (Gujarat): Firebrand Dalit leader and Vadgam's sitting MLA Jignesh Mevani of the Congress party retained his constituency in Gujarat as he ambled past his rival Manilal Vaghela from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday.
Mevani polled 93848 votes defeating BJP's Manibhai Jethabhai Vaghela by 4796 votes. Vaghela is a turncoat who switched from Congress to BJP after he was denied ticket in 2017. He held the Vadgam seat from 2012 to 2017.
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Vadgam is a reserved seat for the scheduled castes (SCs), where Muslim voters play a decisive role. Muslim voters, estimated to be around 90,000, account for a third of Vadgam's 2.94-lakh electorate. There are about 44,000 Dalit voters and 15,000 Rajputs. Besides Vaghela, Mevani faced competition from candidates fielded by the Aam Aadmi Party and AIMIM of Assauddin Owaisi -- Dalpat Bhatia and Kalpesh Sundhia respectively.
A staunch critic of the incumbent BJP, Mevani was among three independent candidates who won in Gujarat in 2017. He was supported by Congress and AAP who did not field a candidate against him. This was when Vaghela’s seat had been changed by the party and after the loss, he moved to BJP.
He was also arrested by Assam police in April for his offensive tweets targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi which his supporters termed as a “gross atrocity” against the young leader who has always “fought for the rights of the poor”.
