Will Congress’ Ajit Ramji Mahla Score A Win In BJP’s Citadel Dadra & Nagar Haveli? (image-Facebook/ Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli.)
Reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs), the Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha constituency is one of the two parliamentary constituencies in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. A bill passed in 2019 and was implemented in 2020, merging both union territories. Ajit Ramji Mahla, a former government school teacher, has been fielded as the Congress candidate from the Lok Sabha seat.
Mahla is a graduate with a B.Ed. from Pune University. He criticised sitting MP Kalaben Delkar for sitting at home and not approaching the public or going out to meet them. Notably, Mahla began his career in politics as a member of the party’s student wing, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), eventually becoming its secretary and general secretary.
Having resigned as a teacher in 2019, Mahla joined Congress and currently serves as the chairman of the Adivasi Congress of Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Mahla belongs to the Konkana tribal community.
Ramji Mahla, his father, was an MP from the Lok Sabha seat in 1980 and served as the secretary of Congress between 2006 and 2010, among other notable positions.
The longest-winning candidate in the Lok Sabha constituency is Mohan Delkar, who ended his life in February 2021 in a hotel in Mumbai. He accused Praful Khoda Patel, the Administrator of the Union Territory and former junior home minister of Gujarat between 2010 and 2012, of harassment in a note. Delkar’s wife, Kalaben Delkar, won the seat on the Shiv Sena ticket. Delkar is seeking another term, but this time on a BJP ticket.
Interestingly, Mohan Delkar has been a Congress, BJP, Bharatiya Navshakti Party (BNP), and independent candidate through his tenure as the Dadra and Nagar Haveli MP.
The Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli has nearly 2.5 lakh voters, while Daman and Diu, the second-smallest Lok Sabha constituency, have less than 90,000 voters.
The Lok Sabha constituency has witnessed many independent candidates being elected over the years. In 1967, Congress emerged as the winner, maintaining its winning streak till 1980. From 1991 until 1996, the grand old party represented the seat. Since the 1998 general elections, the Lok Sabha constituency has witnessed the BJP representing it in 2009 and 2014 as well.
Daman is an industrial town; however, the majority of the population in Diu depends on fishing and tourism for their livelihood. The Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha constituency will go to the polls on May 7.
