Bhavnagar
City has a history where each election till date has been fought on the
lines of caste. This is owing to the large majority of Koli Community
in the city constituting 45% of the electorate.
Congress
and BJP are the only two major front runners in any election here and
strong independent candidates or third fronts are mostly absent. Owing
to strong unity and caste identity among the Koli community it was
virtually considered impossible for a non – Koli candidate to win
irrespective of their party affiliation or Public image if pitted
against a member of Koli community. Thus both parties would either pit a
Koli candidate or refrain from it in unison each time. Whenever this
pattern was broken the the non Koli candidate has always been punished.
During
the 2012 Gujarat General assembly elections the Congress heavyweight
and leader of opposition Shaktisinh Gohil lost in Bhavnagar Rural
constituency against Koli candidate. It is due to this massive majority
that most of city’s elected leaders belong to this community including
- Mayor
- MP
- 1/3 MLA’s
Bhavnagar
city has been victim of caste based politics even before the Patidar
agitation and by now history indicated that any deviation from this
pattern of fielding Koli vs Koli candidates almost results into a loss
for the party that makes a deviation.
2017 General Assembly Election
This
time caste and community based politics had taken toll of the entire
Gujarat and Bhavnagar was never expected to be a deviation from this due
its history of caste supremacy voting, But instead something remarkable
happens this time.
BJP
decides to once again field the incumbent Candidate Vibhavari ben Dave a
female leader from Bhramin community and Congress tries to seize the
power by fielding Candidate another female Candidate from the Koli
community Nitaben Rathod. Most political Pundits had given their verdict
that it would be impossible to defeat Nitaben as she would be
comfortably sailing to the majority mark with de facto support from 45%
of electorate. Even BJP members had their reservations when asked about
the outcome.
But
the dawn of 9th December brought in one of the best changes in the
Electoral history of Bhavnagar and Gujarat in general. People for the
first time shunned caste based politics and voted in favour of Vibhavari
Ben making her the victor and representative of the people of Bhavnagar
East. This lady broke a glass – ceiling which was intact even after the
efforts of many heavy weight politicians in past.
Amid
an Electoral atmosphere that had divided the state along caste and
community lines the Constituency historically marred with this evil
defied the convention made it the most remarkable contest of 2017
Gujarat General. Assembly election.
Vibhavari Ben has been promoted as Minister of State for Education, Women and Children welfare and Pilgrim this term.
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