A political wind is sweeping Gujarat as it prepares for the Lok Sabha and bye elections in phase III on May 7.

Before Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Lal Krishna Advani brought the saffron wave to Gujarat in 1995, the Congress had a significant presence in Gujarat.

With just six days to go for the elections in the state, the ruling party and the opposition have lined up their star campaigners to campaign across Gujarat.

BJP’s face Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Gujarat today, on the foundation day of the state, to campaign in 14 constituencies on his two-day visit.

Other BJP star campaigners include JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Smriti Irani, Jaishankar, Arjun Munda, Dr Bharti Pawar, Yogi Adityanath, Bhajanlal Sharma, Devendra Fadnavis, Dr Mohan Yadav, Himanta Biswa Sarma, K Annamalai, Manoj Tiwari, and Vishnu Deo Sai.

In Gujarat, the showdown is set for two major political parties, the BJP and Congress, in ‘25 constituencies’.

On the other hand, Congress has fielded president Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as other stalwart leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, KC Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ashok Gehlot, and Sachin Pilot, among others, as the star campaigners for the state.

What’s new this time?

Even though the BJP swept all the 26 seats in the 2019 elections, it seems to be a tight race this time for the ruling party.

BJP was sailing smoothly in Gujarat until a controversial remark by veteran BJP leader Parshottam Rupala brought a riptide.

Rupala, who is contesting from the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat, found himself in a soup as he remarked on the 'erstwhile kings' that they bowed down to foreign rulers due to persecution and married their women to them. The Kshatriyas took umbrage over his remarks against the community and turned their backs against BJP.

Over a month later, the Kshatriya community across the state are up in arms against the BJP leader and the party.

Though Rajkot might have caused some headache for the ruling party, there was solace after the party bagged the Surat seat unopposed.

On Apr 22, BJP candidate Mukesh Dalal secured the Surat seat after it was declared uncontested. Dalal's victory in Surat came after the Congress candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, found his candidacy invalidated. Clearing the path for BJP, eight other contestants also withdrew their papers.

As a result, for the first time, Gujarat will witness elections on 25 seats instead of 26.

The Congress, as a part of the INDIA bloc, will be contesting on 23 seats. 

As per the seat-sharing agreement between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), AAP will be contesting in the Bharuch and Bhavnagar constituencies.

This time, five Assembly seats in Gujarat will witness bye elections along with Lok Sabha elections. Bye polls Assembly seats include Porbandar, Khambhat, Vaghodia, Vijapur, and Manavadar.

Lok Sabha polls 2019 recap

The state witnessed a voter turnout ratio of 64.51% in the Lok Sabha polls of 2019, 0.85% more than in 2014.

In some of the most notable wins in Gujarat, BJP's Darshana Jardosh won in Surat with a 74.50% margin, Gujarat president CR Patil won in Navsari with 74.40%, and Rajan Bhatt won in Vadodara with a 72.30% margin in 2019. 

During the previous general elections, BJP candidate Hasmukh Patel won from the Ahmedabad east seat with a margin of 4,34,330, while Kirit Solanki, also a BJP candidate from Ahmedabad west was named the winner with a margin of 3,21,546.

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