Bhavana bites the dust in Junagadh

The Union tourism minister fails in a BJP bastion

Bhavnaben Chikhalia has joined the list of losers in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee ministry.

The Union minister of state for tourism was defeated in Junagadh parliamentary constituency by her Congress rival Jasubhai Barad by a margin of over 40,956 votes.

Chikhalia was instrumental in completing the long-awaited gauge conversion project between Rajkot and Veraval. She had also assured a ropeway project for Girnar and a special allocation for the Somnath Temple. However, voters were not impressed.

She could not consolidate votes from any of the assembly segments, which were considered to be BJP bastions.

Chikhalia attributed her defeat to the heavy polling in Talala, Somnath and Una assembly segments of the parliamentary constituency and large-scale irregularities that allegedly took place during the polling in these segments.

Chikhalia had resorted to a fast on the polling day, protesting against the alleged irregularities at polling booths in Talala and Somnath.

Election authorities had ordered repolling to one of the polling booths in the Talala segment following her complaint that her polling agents were looted and abducted by the rival group.

Looking at the results of the parliamentary constituency, it is clear that four assembly segments, which were BJP stronghold, did not support the minister.

Congress made a big lead in Talala, Somnath and Una, while traditional Congress bastions paved way for the victory of Jasubhai Barad.

Barad had lost the last assembly elections to a new entrant of BJP from Talala.

In this segment, Barad got lead of 29,414 votes, from Somnath he got lead of 16,867 votes and from Una assembly segment he captured a lead of 13,068 votes. But Chikhalia could not make up for the lead during counting in BJP strongholds.

Chikhalia got a lead of just 5,385 votes from Kesod, 1,615 votes from Malia and 2,071 votes from the Junagadh assembly segment.

In addition to this, Visavadar, which was a constituency of erstwhile chief minister Keshubhai Patel, she could get a lead of just 9,304 votes over her rival.

The Congress candidate concentrated on the OBC voters and the Talala, Ahir and Karadia communities. This strategy paid him rich dividends.

Chikhalia was confident of getting the Patel community votes and easily winning the election.

But the calculations did not work as expected. From Visavadar, she got 9,304 votes' lead ,Kesod 5,385 votes' lead and Malia 1,615 votes' lead.

This could be a reaction to the Kisan Sangh's anger over power tariffs, political circles say. Even from the Junagardh city segment, which is again a BJP-dominated seat, Chikhalia could not get a lead of more than 2,071 votes over her rival.