Gandhinagar Lok Sabha Constituency: A High-Profile Battle In BJP Stronghold   

Gandhinagar is the citadel of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the past three decades. Gandhinagar is the parliamentary constituency that includes parts of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar districts. This constituency is formed in 1967. In the inaugural election, Somanathbhai Solanki of Congress was the winner. He was reelected in 1971 as well. Congress won the constituency in 1980 and 1984 again. Gandhinagar turned to the fortress of BJP from 1991. The renowned leaders of the party, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani had contested here.

LK Advani has been elected for 6 times from the Gandhinagar constituency. In the recent assembly election, the BJP won all the seven seats including the two seats of the Congress.

Amit Shah, the incumbent MP of Gandhinagar, is contesting for his second term. The political scenario builds confidence for BJP as the state government is under BJP rule as well as the BJP has increased their vote share in each election.

In 2014, LK Advani garnered a vote share of 68.03% while Kiritbhai Ishvarbhai Patel of Congress obtained 25.56%. LK Advani won with a margin of 483121 votes.

In 2019, Amit Shah was the winner with a vote share of 69.58% while the congress got 26.6%. Amit Shah has an advantage as a Union home minister in his home state.

Congress nominated Sonal Patel, AICC secretary, and the Congress co-incharge of Maharashtra. She was the former President of Gujarat Mahila Congress and previously headed grand old party’s women wing in western states (2012-18). From the setbacks of recent assembly election, Congress has decided to hasten its ground in Gujarat. Gujarat is under the BJP rule since 1996. Despite of this, Congress made strategies to fight the elections with Aam Admi Party (AAP) being its ally.

(This article is part of a Timeline internship project)