Surat LS seat: Congress fails to go past the 3 lakh votes margin

SURAT: Congress, which could not manage to garner more than three lakh votes in Surat

Lok Sabha

constituency since 1989, hit the jackpot in 2004 when its candidate polled over five lakh votes. Surat has approximately 16.5 lakh voters, of whom four are Saurashtrian Patels and1.67 lakh belong to minority communities. Koli Patels have 1.3 lakh votes and 2.24 lakh votes by local Surtis.


In 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP candidate Darshana Jardosh retained the seat in Surat with a huge margin of 5.33 lakh votes. “Having victory margin of more than 5.3 lakh votes in a constituency which has 15 lakh total votes is generally unheard of,” a senior Congress worker from Surat said. “It only suggests that the people do not accept any other party but one. We have been on the receiving end for far too long in the city,” he lamented.

Totally urban in nature, the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has been under BJP rule for nearly three decades now after it took over its reins in 1991.

“The shift started since 1989 when our leader

Kashiram Rana

, a local Surti, wrested the Surat seat from CD Patel of Congress. Since then Rana remained undefeated till 2004 for six terms and then Jardosh took over for the last two terms,” said Nitin Bhajiyawala, present city BJP president and a veteran political worker for over four decades in the city. He further said that Surat people have voted for the party irrespective of caste and creed equation. “This reflects from the results and it can prove only one thing that ultimately it is the work done by the party that speaks,” he asserted.

Bhajiywala also said that growth of Surat city since the 90’s has been unparalleled in urban Indian history. And in ruling the city, his party (BJP) was able to not only sustain it but also made further progress. People believed in their work and so they continue voting for the party, he added.

Surat Lok Sabha seat before 1989 and afterwards are two different phases in history. Before 1989, it was a Congress seat and leaders like Morarji Desai, Ashok Mehta and CD Patel represented the party. However after 1989, it went to BJP kitty and Congress, despite being main opposition party, could never wrest it back again.

Only in 2004, when Surat and Navsari were merged as one seat, did Congress’s Chandravan Pithawala manage to get more than 5 lakh votes against BJP’s Kashiram Rana’s 8.96 lakh votes.

“We tried everything. We tried giving a ticket to native Surti, Saurashtrian Patidar, even Chaudhary, and Koli Patels too. However, it seems as it post CD Patel era, we are not able to put across our message to the people. I have to accept that something is missing otherwise how could party candidate get just 1.85 lakh votes from 11 lakh votes polled in 2014?” questioned Kadir Pirzada, a senior Congress leader from the city.

He also added that thousands of people attend their public meetings, their workers across the polling booths get very good response, which however does not get translated into votes . “We are also mulling over where we miss translating the acceptance of our party into votes required in winning the elections,” Pirzada added.