Ahmedabad:
Though it may just be a coincidence, the election result of the Valsad Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat has once again proved that whichever political party has managed to win this tribal-dominated constituency has ultimately formed its government at the Centre.
This time too, the Valsad seat has emerged as a ‘politically auspicious’ and ‘lucky seat’ of Gujarat.
BJP candidate Dr K C Patel has emerged the winner from this constituency and his party is all set to form the government at the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
K C Patel, the sitting BJP Member of Parliament from Valsad, defeated Congress candidate and sitting MLA Jitu Chaudhari with a huge margin of over 3.53 lakh votes.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Patel had defeated Congress’s two-time MP Kishan Patel by over 2 lakh votes.
“Of course this is an auspicious seat. Time and again, results of this seat have proved that the party which wins this seat forms the government at the Centre,” K C Patel told PTI.
Valsad, one of the 26 Lok Sabha seats of Gujarat, is reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates.
In 1977, when Morarji Desai became the Prime Minister and led the government formed by the Janata Party, Nanubhai Patel had won the Valsad seat.
From 1980 to 1989, when Congress ruled the country under Indira Gandhi and later under Rajiv Gandhi, the seat was represented by Congress MP Uttambhai Patel.
Call it a coincidence or luck, when VP Singh’s Janata Dal formed the government at the Centre in 1989, Janata Dal candidate Arjunbhai Patel had won from this seat.
In 1991, Congress candidate Uttambhai Patel once again won from Valsad, which coincided with Congress Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao’s rule at the Centre.
The belief of political parties about the “auspicious” nature of the seat in South Gujarat has been validated by subsequent poll results.
The BJP won the Valsad seat for the first time in 1996, the year which saw the 13-day-long government of the saffron party led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Vajpayee again got elected as Prime Minister in 1998 and 1999 and on both occasions Valsad was won by the BJP.
It was Manibhai Chaudhari of the BJP who won from this seat between 1996 and 1999.
However in 2004, Congress candidate Kishan Patel wrested the seat from the BJP and his party formed a coalition government at the Centre (UPA 1).
Kishan Patel retained the seat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls which saw the Congress retaining power at the Centre (UPA 2).
The tables turned in 2014 when K C Patel trumped Kishan Patel, which coincided with the formation of the BJP- led NDA government at the Centre under Modi.
