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Before this election, 15 elections including one by-election have been held in Rapar seat of Kutch district. This time the BJP had made Virendrasinh Bahadursinh Jadeja its candidate from here. Jadeja had defeated veteran Gujarat Congress leader Shakti Singh Gohil from Mandvi seat in Kutch district in the 2017 elections. Congress had given ticket to Bachubhai Arethia this time.
Going by the result of this election, once again BJP has won here. Virendrasinh Jadeja of BJP defeated Bachubhai Arethia of INC by just 577 votes. However, NOTA played a decisive role in this victory of BJP. Here NOTA got 3,942 votes more than the margin of victory.
Congress made a strong comeback in 2017
The BJP had to face defeat on this seat in the 2017 assembly elections. Congress candidate Sankotben Bachubhai Arethia defeated BJP’s Pankaj Bhai Mehta by a margin of 15,000 votes. A total of 13 candidates were in the fray in this election. Apart from the Congress and BJP candidates, the deposits of the remaining 11 candidates were forfeited. Whereas, in the 2012 elections, the BJP had won from here. BJP candidate Vaghajibhai Patel defeated Babulal Gada of INC by a margin of nine thousand votes.
In 2017, the Congress prevented the BJP from scoring a hat-trick of victories.
This seat has been a question of supremacy for both the main parties of Gujarat, BJP and Congress. The Congress has fared better than the BJP in this seat, winning seven out of 15 elections. BJP got victory here in 2012, 2022 and 2014 (by-elections).
BJP won four seats in Kutch district in 2017
Rapar seat is one of the six seats under Kutch district. In 2017, the BJP had won four of the six seats in the district. Whereas, the Congress was successful in winning only two seats.
