Gujarat: Haribhai Patel Hopes To Keep The Mehsana Lok Sabha Seat For BJP (Facebook image@Haribhai Patel)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) decided to field Haribhai Patel, from Gujarat”s Mehsana Lok Sabha seat for the 2024 general election. Currently serving as the Chairman of Executive Committee of Mehsana District Panchayat, Patel hopes to win the seat with a great vote margin.

Patel has served as the chairman of the Standing Committee of the district panchayat and president of the Mehsana district BJP organisation. He was given ticket to the 2024 Lok Sabha election as the sitting and outgoing BJP MP, Shardaben Patel announced her decision to not to seek a re-election.

Haribhai Patel has been working as a principal of Fine Arts College, from which he retired in 2019. He has been associated with BJP for a long time. He served as the Member of Parliament from the Porbandar seat from 1991 to 1996, and from 2004 to 2009. During the mid-term assembly election in 2012, Patel contested from Dhoraji, but lost to Indian National Congress” (INC) Vitthal Radadiya. After the election, he switched alliance from BJP to Congress. He contested the 2013 by-poll from the same seat on Congress ticket but lost to BJP”s Pravin Makadiya.

Patel will be contesting against Congress” Ramji Thakor. Mehsana appears to be a bastion of BJP. Since winning the seat in 1984, BJP dominated the seat consistently. It is one of the two Lok Sabha seat won by the BJP during the 1984 Congress wave, marking its strong alliance to the party. The first candidate to win the seat was A K Patel.