Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency

Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency: Gandhinagar, the capital of Gujarat, is one of the most planned cities in the country. When Gujarat was formed on May 1, 1960, Ahmedabad became the capital of the state. Five years later, on August 2, 1965, a new city was established. This city was Gandhinagar, this city became the new capital of the state. This city got this name to keep the memory of Mahatma Gandhi alive.

Gandhinagar district was formed in 1965 and Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat came into existence in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections. At that time it was a reserved seat. Then Congress won from here and SM Solanki, who contested from the party, became MP. Solanki defeated Republican Party of India candidate KU Parmar by 29,840 votes.SM Solanki also won in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections. This time Solanki won as a candidate of Indian National Congress (Organization). SM Solanki defeated Narsingh Bhai Karsan Bhai Makwana of Indira Gandhi faction of Congress by 3,502 votes in a close contest.

Congress lost the seat after the Emergency

When Lok Sabha elections were held in 1977 after the Emergency, like most seats in the country, Congress lost the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat too. In that election, Ganesh Mavalankar of Bharatiya Lok Dal Purushottam defeated Congress candidate Govind Bhai Patel by 60,117 votes. In the Lok Sabha elections held in 1980, Congress again made a comeback on the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. In this election, Amrit Mohanal Patel of Congress defeated Purushottam Ganesh Mavalankar of Janata Party by 49,217 votes.In the 1984 general election, Congress was successful in retaining the Gandhinagar seat.

This time GI Patel defeated Indubhai Chaturbhai Patel of Janata Party by 2,754 votes. This was the last victory of Congress on the Gandhinagar seat. Since then, Congress has not been able to register a win on the Gandhinagar seat.Now came the 1989 election. The atmosphere of Gandhinagar had changed. This seat, which was a stronghold of Congress, was now ready to be painted in saffron colour. This was the first election in which BJP won from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. Party candidate Shankar Singh Vaghela opened the account of BJP’s victory here. He defeated Congress’ Kokila Vyas by a huge margin of 2,68,492 votes. Vaghela later also became the Chief Minister of Gujarat.

Advani’s entry in Gandhinagar
Ram Mandir movement was at its peak. Lal Krishna Advani started his Rath Yatra from Gujarat’s Somnath for Ayodhya. The Yatra could not go beyond Bihar. Advani was arrested. Amidst all this, Advani had become a big face of Ram Mandir movement. After Advani’s arrest, the power of the country changed. VP Singh’s government fell. Chandrashekhar became the new Prime Minister. This government also did not last long.

Lok Sabha elections were held in 1991.In this election, Gandhinagar seat became one of the most talked about seats in the country. The reason was Lal Krishna Advani. Advani contested from Gandhinagar seat. He defeated Congress candidate GI Patel by 1,25,679 votes.Since 1991, Gandhinagar seat has been one of the most talked about seats in the country in all the general elections that have been held so far.

In 1991, Lal Krishna Advani won the Gandhinagar seat and in the next election, BJP’s biggest face at that time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee contested from here. In 1996, Atal won here on a BJP ticket. He defeated Congress candidate Popatlal V. Patel by a huge margin of 1,88,872 votes. Atal ji won from Gandhinagar as well as Lucknow Lok Sabha seat. After the results, Atal ji became the Prime Minister. However, his government fell in just 13 days. He continued to represent Lucknow seat as an MP and resigned from Gandhinagar seat. In the by-election held after this, Vijay Patel retained BJP’s hold on Gandhinagar seat. In the1998 Lok Sabha elections, once again LK Advani entered the electoral fray from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat.

This time Advani was pitted against PK Dutta from Congress. When the election results came, BJP again managed to retain the Gandhinagar seat. Advani defeated the Congress candidate by a huge margin of 2,76,701 votes.

When Congress made former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan its candidate

elections were held again after just one year. In this election too, LK Advani was in the fray from Gandhinagar seat. This time he was pitted against a very popular face. Congress had fielded former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan against Advani here. TN Seshan is credited for the election reforms in the 1990s. When the election was held on Gandhinagar seat, Seshan had to face defeat by 1,88,944 votes. Advani won the Gandhinagar seat for the third time. In 2004, Advani defeated Congress’s Gabhaji Mangaji Thakor by 2,17,138 votes. In 2009, Advani defeated Congress’ Suresh Patel by 1,21,747 votes. In 2009, Advani was the face of the BJP for the post of Prime Minister. However, the party did not get the seats as expected and Advani remained PM in waiting.

Advani dominated till 2014

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP made Narendra Modi its candidate for the post of Prime Minister. In this election too, LK Advani contested from Gandhinagar seat. He defeated Kiritbhai Ishwarbhai Patel of Congress by a huge margin of 4,83,121 votes.

In 2019, the seat was in Amit Shah’s name
In the last election, BJP gave ticket to the then national president of the party Amit Shah for Gandhinagar seat. Gandhinagar was already a politically well-known place for Amit Shah. Whenever LK Advani and Atal Bihari Vajpayee contested from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha, Amit Shah had handled the responsibility of their election management. He handled this responsibility of managing Advani’s Lok Sabha elections till 2009.

Amit Shah, who was an MLA from Gujarat from 1997 to 2017, contested the Lok Sabha elections for the first time in 2019. When the election results came, Shah got a landslide victory from Gandhinagar. Amit Shah, who got about 69.58 percent votes, won this election by a margin of 5,57,014 votes. Dr. CJ Chavda from Congress was at second place. Amit Shah was made the Home Minister in the BJP government which returned to power again in 2019. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed the Ministry of Cooperation in July 2021, Amit Shah also got the responsibility of Cooperative Minister.

For this Lok Sabha election, BJP has given ticket to Amit Shah from Gandhinagar seat. Shah will be responsible for hoisting the saffron flag once again on Gandhinagar seat. If we look at the current equation of Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, then seven assembly seats come in Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. In the assembly elections held in the state in 2022, BJP won all the assembly seats of Gandhinagar Lok Sabha constituency. In such a situation, it will be a big challenge for the opposition to stop the victory chariot of BJP from here in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.