Gujarat Elections 2022: All About Ghatlodia Assembly Seat That Has Given 2 Chief Ministers
Former Gujarat CM Anandiben Patel was also an MLA from Ghatlodia when she won the election in 2012. In 2017, Bhupendra Patel claimed the seat and became Chief Minister of Gujarat.
Gujarat is scheduled to witness an intense political battle this year with BJP, Congress, and AAP putting in all their energy to woo the voters. While AAP has announced 139 names so far, Congress released its first list of 43 candidates on Saturday. The ruling BJP is yet to release its first list of candidates.
While it is certain that every assembly seat will see a three-cornered fight, the Ghatlodia assembly constituency will be a matter of pride. Ghatlodia seat was carved out from the Sarkhej assembly constituency after the delimitation in 2012. BJP has won Ghatlodia assembly seat in 2012 and 2017. The important thing is that in both elections, this constituency gave Gujarat its Chief Ministers. The incumbent Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel is holding the Ghatlodia seat at present.
In 2012, BJP candidate Anandiben Patel was in the fray from here who emerged victorious with a margin of 1.54 lakh votes. She was later appointed as the Chief Minister of the state after the then-CM Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India. However, in 2017, Anandiben was replaced by Vijay Rupani as the Chief Minister.
Ghatlodia is an area dominated by Patidar and Rabari. A major impact of the 2017 Patidar agitation was seen here. In the same year, BJP gave Bhupendra Patel, a close confidante of Anandiben Patel, the ticket from Ghatlodia. Bhupendra Patel won the seat for the BJP again with a bigger margin of 1.75 lakh votes and was made the CM of the state.
Ghatlodia has never been an easy ground for the rival Congress. The grand-old party managed to garner only 44,000 votes in 2012 when its candidate Rameshbhai Patel fought against Anandiben. In 2017, it could only get 57,902 votes. Congress has fielded Rajya Sabha MP Amee Yagnik from Ghatlodia this time.
It will be interesting to see if the winning feat continues for the saffron party or Opposition takes it from the BJP.
Elections to the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held in two phases next month - on December 1 and 5, while votes will be counted on December 8.
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