Saurashtra’s Jasdan is a constituency where all local bodies are ruled by Congress since independence of the country.

But today, for the first time in the history of Gujarat, BJP has marked a victory by winning Jasdan assembly seat with comfortable margin.

Let’s go in to the details of Jadan victory.

Congress man Kuvarjibhai Bavaliya was MLA of Jasdan for last many years. Bavaliya won Jasdan seat in assembly election 2007 too. Bavaliya hails from Koli community. He vacated Jasdan seat early this year after being elected to the Rajkot parliament seat.

When by-polls were announced, Bavaliya pressured the party to confirm his daughter Bhavnaben Bavaliya’s candidature on Jasdan seat. The Congress party succumbed to Bavaliya’s demand and his daughter Bhavnaben Bavaliya’s name was announced as Congress candidate on Jasdan seat.

Though Koli votes dominate Jasdan seat, the second most powerful voters are Patels.

Jasdan local Bharatbhai Boghra belongs to Patel community. Boghra, an ex-election office incharge of Congress sitting MP Kuvarji Bavaliya left the Congress to become a BJP candidate on Jasdan seat.

By selecting Bharatbhai as a candidate, BJP secured Patel votes. Through Bharatbhai’s cross party connections, the party pulled out considerably well amount of votes from Congress.

On the other hand, Bhupat Dabhi, a local Koli leader of BJP ‘revolted’ against the party and filed his nomination as an independent candidate. Dabhi worked very effectively in splitting up the Koli votes. His total campaign was focused around Koli votes.

BJP leader and Minister Purushottam Solanki, who is a state level Koli leader, campaigned not for BJP candidate but for independent Koli candidate Bhupat Dabhi to make a split in Koli votes wider.

And the efforts paid up.

While independent candidate Bhupat Dabhi snatched away around 10,000 Koli votes from the Koli candidate of Congress, the BJP candidate Bharatbhai secured Patel votes and moreover he snatched away traditional Congress votes from Congress to his favor protesting against ‘one-family rule’ and ‘Baap-Beti politics’ of Congress.

Chief Minister Narendra Modi who never visited the by-election campaign had called all leading party workers of Jasdan seat to his bungalow in Gandhinagar to address them. In his address Narendra Modi had reportedly urged that the party wanted to serve Jasdan area but the people out there had not left any window open. All the local bodies were occupied by Congress. outgoing MLA and MP too were from Congress. The party wanted development in Jasdan, but it could be possible only if people open at least one window. “When rest of Gujarat is enjoying fruits of development, Jasdna should not be left out” was the feeling.

Let’s hope, Modi will deliver as promised.