Gujarat Polls: Congress heavyweight Shaktisinh Gohil loses in Mandvi

Mandvi (Gujarat) [India] Dec. 18 (ANI): Congress heavyweight Shaktisinh Gohil on Monday lost election from Mandvi constituency.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Virendrasinh Jadeja defeated Gohil by a margin of 9046 votes.

The BJP dropped its sitting MLA Tarachand Chheda to retain the seat, which has been a party bastion for a long time. The Congress fielded its Abdasa MLA Gohil from Mandvi to give a tough fight to the BJP.

In 1975, former Chief Minister Suresh Mehta won from here first time on the Bharatiya Jan Sangh ticket and remained undefeated till 1998, except 1980, when he lost to Jay Kumar Sanghvi of the Congress (I).

The last time the Congress party won here was in 2002, when Chhabilbhai Patel defeated Mehta by a margin of merely 598 votes.

The Mandvi seat, having a total voter base of 2.24 lakh, comprises of two talukas of Kutch -- Mandvi and Mundra.

Out of the 2.24 lakh voters, Muslims are in a dominating position with over 50,000 voter population, followed by 31,000 Dalits, 25,000 Patidars and 21,000 Rajputs.

As many as 29 candidates filed their nominations from the seat and of these, 15 as independents. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI