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Gujarat polls: BJP wins all three seats in tragedy-hit Morbi
The largest of these three victories was in the Morbi assembly constituency, where the bridge is located. Reacting sharply, the BJP dropped its sitting MLA and minister Brijesh Merja — who switched over the Congress in 2020 and then won the bypoll — for Kantilal Amrutiya, the former MLA that who made national headlines by jumping into the river during rescue operations
At 6.30pm on October 30, the “Jhulto Pul” in Gujarat’s Morbi, ostensibly repaired just five days ago, collapsed into the river Macchu, killing 135 people. With a city known for its ceramic industry in shock, and on the cusp of an assembly election a month later, the state government swung into a damage-limitation exercise, with constant visits from chief minister Bhupendra Patel, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. In any case, this was difficult turf for the BJP — the Congress won all three seats in the district in 2017 (it lost one of those seats to the BJP after a bypoll in 2020). But 40 days after Gujarat saw one of its biggest tragedies in recent memory, the BJP won all three seats in the district.
Three assembly constituencies make up Morbi district - Morbi, Tankara and Wankaner.
The largest of these three victories was in the Morbi assembly constituency, where the bridge is located. Reacting sharply, the BJP dropped its sitting MLA and minister Brijesh Merja — who switched over the Congress in 2020 and then won the bypoll — for Kantilal Amrutiya, the former MLA that who made national headlines by jumping into the river during rescue operations. Across the city, the BJP used these pictures in campaign posters across the city, as well as images from the 1979 floods, during which Amrutiya was similarly photographed helping in relief and rescue.
Come December 8, Morbi voting overwhelmingly for Amrutiya, who won 59.12% of the vote, beating Congress candidate Jayantilal Patel by over 60,000 votes. A senior Congress leader from Morbi said, “Their strategy of changing the candidate worked but we also had a very low key campaign. This area has a strong Patidar influence and there was no anger like in 2017, like there was no anger about demonetization or GST. But it is a matter of grave concern if the party can’t even win a seat where 135 people died.”
The BJP also won the seat of Tankara, where the BJP’s Durlabhji Dethariya beat Lalit Kagathara by 10,000, with the AAP’s Sanjay Bhatsana winning 17,617 votes. The BJP benefitting from votes being split between the opposition was even more evident in Wankaner, a seat with a sizeable Muslim population, where the BJP’s Jitendra Somani beat Mahmadjavid Pirzada by 19,955 votes, with the AAP’s Vikram Sorani in third winning 53,110 votes.
