Surat: Among Saurashtra seats, Amreli seat is special in many ways. As Jivraj Mehta, the first Chief Minister of Gujarat, was elected from here, this seat can be considered historic, since 1985, this seat has become the stronghold of BJP. BJP’s Dilip Sanghani and Purushotham Rupala were elected from here. However, Paresh Dhanani, who contested from the Congress at the age of 25 in 2002, has been a giant killer since defeating veteran BJP leader Purushotham Rupala. In between, Dilip Sanghani won from here once but Paresh Dhanani is winning again for the last two terms. BJP has become desperate to win this seat.
History of this meeting
This seat has been a BJP stronghold since 1991. BJP’s Dilip Sanghani has won four times from this seat. But in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, Virji Thummar of Congress defeated Sanghani. Paresh Dhanani defeated BJP’s Naran Kachdia in the assembly elections in 2017. Earlier, Paresh Dhanani had defeated Dilip Sanghani and Purshotham Rupala from this seat. The yadavasthali going on between the BJP leaders in Amreli has strengthened the Congress. In the year 2017, amid the impact of the Patidar movement, Congress captured not only the Amreli seat but all the seats in the entire district except one.
This time Navajuni’s fire in a three-pronged battle
There are total 2,68000 voters and in the year 2017 Paresh Dhanani won with a margin of 12029 votes. This time Kaushik Vekaria from BJP and Ravi Dhanani from the same family as Paresh Dhanani from Aam Aadmi Party are in the fray. Hardik Patel, the face of the Patidar movement, is in the BJP this time and the Aam Aadmi Party candidate who can make a dent in the Congress votes is in the fray. So this seat will be watched by political pundits.
Challenge against BJP
Paresh Dhanani of Congress has good dominance in the entire Amreli district. Also, there is anger among the farmers against the BJP in this area due to issues such as crop insurance problems, water problems in the fields, electricity problems. Due to poor condition of basic facilities and highway roads, Amreli district has been lagging behind in terms of development despite giving veteran leaders, which has directly benefited Congress.