Gandhinagar likely to witness one-sided battle
The prestigious Gandhinagar seat represented by LK Advani, is likely to witness a 'one-sided' battle in the forthcoming polls.
The prestigious Gandhinagar parliamentary constituency in Gujarat, represented by Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, is likely to witness a 'one-sided' battle with a galaxy of personalities having tried their electoral luck from here in the past but in vain.
After four hectic phases of mass contact programmes topped by Bharat Uday Yatra and not so 'formidable' opponents, there seems little that Advani needs to do for winning this seat for the fourth time, including third time in succession.
Advani has frequently described Gandhinagar as his "favourite of 543 constituencies" and said that given a choice he would always like to contest Lok Sabha polls from here.
In what seems like a mere semblance of resistance to this BJP heavyweight, Congress has tried every bit. The party, had fielded former Chief Election Comissioner T N Seshan, celluloid star Rajesh Khanna, former state DGP P K Datta against Advani but all were humbled by considerable margin.
Even this time, several Congress leaders were approached to contest against Advani but they declined apparently not wanting to be the "sacrificial goat".
In the end, Congress had to field a former BJP minister in Keshubhai Patel ministry Gabhaji Thakore, who had shifted loyalty alleging that he was "sidelined" by Narendra Modi.
Though Thakore, a two-time MP from Kapadvanj is confident of giving Advani a "tough fight", observors say he cannot cut much ice against the BJP leader.
Even Vitthalbhai Pandya -- father of slain BJP leader Haren Pandya and staunch Modi-critic jumped into the fray to get justice for his son. But BJP believes that the septugenarian has slipped into "state of non-relevance by over-publicising his anger against Advani and Modi."
The senior Pandya, who was much persuaded by BJP to withdraw his nomination lest it causes "embarrasment" to the party, however, remained adamant and said that he is not contesting for personal gain by justice for his son.
Gandhinagar, which consists Sarkhej, Sabarmati, Ellisbridge, Dariapur-Kazipur, Shahpur, Asarwa and Gandhinagar assembly segments, of which first six are BJP-ruled while the last one was wrested from the saffron party by Congress.
Advani first won Gandhinagar seat in 1991 defeating Congressman G I Patel but did not contest from here in 1996 following charges in the Jain-Hawala case.
In fact it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who contested and was elected from here in 1996 but being elected from Lucknow, he resigned from Gandhinagar, thus necessitating by-elections.
In the by-polls, actor-turned-politician Rajesh Khanna was defeated by 61,000 votes by BJP's Vijay Patel.
In 1998, Advani again contested and defeated former DGP P K Datta fielded by Congress by a margin of 2,76,701. In 1999 polls, former Chief Election Commission T N Seshan was trounced by 1,88,944 votes.
The constituency has a total of 21,11,177 voters, including 10,93,545 men and 10,17,632 women and majority of them belonging to middle class strata that has remained the traditional vote bank of BJP.
Interestingly, BJP stamped authority on this seat for the first time when recently ousted Gujarat Congress chief Shankersinh Vaghela, who was then the state BJP president, wrested power from Congress in 1989.
Later, looking at the response and impact of Advani's famous Somnath to Ayodhya Rath Yatra in 1990 that brought down the V P Singh government, the state BJP invited Advani to contest from here in 1991.
Vaghela then shifted to Godhra where again he halted Congress's winning streak and helping BJP to win for the first time.
With the deputy Prime Minister busy in his high-voltage Bharat Uday Yatra, his son Jayant Advani and wife Kamla along with daughter are canvassing in various assembly segments.