S'rashtra facesaver for Cong

RAJKOT: Saurashtra was the only saving grace for the Congress where the party bagged 19 Assembly seats out of the total of 58 in the region. This was an improvement of 13 seats from the 1998 Assembly elections. Here the BJP lost some ground, having won 38 seats this time compared to 50 in the previous elections.
The BJP fared badly in Kutch where party stalwarts like former industries minister Suresh Mehta, state Assembly speaker Dhirubhai Shah and Narendra Modi''s right-hand man Mukesh Zaveri had to bite the dust.The inept handling of earthquake relief is believed to be the main reason behind the party''s poor showing in this border district. Other prominent BJP leaders who lost include Purshottam Rupala, Fakirbhai Vaghela and Kiritsinh Rana. The Congress'' main losers in Saurashtra include Shaktisinh Gohil and Raghavji Patel in Jodiya.
The Congress could make inroads in Surendranagar, Kutch, Jamnagar and to some extent in Junagadh where the Patel voters are said to have rejected the BJP for the party''s "ill-treatment" of Keshubhai Patel. The Congress, however, lost heavily in Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Amreli.
The BJP had won five of the six seats in Kutch in the last elections. This time they could win only two, while the Congress won the rest four.
Out of the six seats in Surendranagar, the BJP won three, the Congress two and one went to an Independent (Chotila). And out of the 11 seats in Rajkot, the BJP won nine and the Congress two. In Jamnagar, the BJP won five and the Congress three. The BJP almost made a clean sweep in Bhavnagar where it won seven of the nine seats, while in Amreli it won five of the six seats. The Big Two shared honours in Porbander, where they won one each seat. Bhura Munja, who had contested on a Samajwadi Party ticket, lost.
While the anti-incumbency factor hardly played any role in the voting pattern in Saurashtra, the undercurrents in favour of the ruling party played a key role in the success of the BJP.
Another key factor which went against the Congress and prevented the BJP from losing much ground in the region was Narendra Modi''s Gaurav Yatra. Moreover, the ‘fatwa'' issued by a Muslim cleric asking the electorate to vote only for the Congress rejuvenated the Hindu voters, who came out in large numbers to vote for the BJP.
The Congress decision to leave the Jamnagar and Bhavnagar seats to the CPM, which hardly has any base in this part of the country, also backfired.