Katargam is one of the few constituencies to go to polls during the 2022 Gujarat elections. It is to be noted that it was created after a delimitation exercise in 2012, with the BJP taking over the reins. Polling will be held on 89 seats on December 1, while polling will be held on December 5 for 93 seats out of 182 seats. The results of the Gujarat Assembly elections will be declared on 8 December.
The BJP, which has been in power in Katargam since 2012, had many ticket aspirants. It finally chose Vinod Mordia. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded Gujarat state unit president Gopal Italia and the Congress has fielded Kalpesh Waria.
Katargam is a stronghold of the Patidar and Prajapati communities. Mordiya and Italia are Patidars, while Varia is a Prajapati – both community heads. There are 90,000 registered Patidar voters, while 75,000 are Prajapati voters. The constituency has several diamond polishing units and textile looms in the suburbs of Surat, both of which employ a lot of migrants. Katargam, therefore, also has a large expatriate community.
The Prajapati community reportedly started the mobilization last month with the aim of getting tickets from all parties. He also organized Ekta Yatra rally.
Meanwhile, the BJP does not seem to have any Prajapati leader in Surat except Niranjan Janjmera. If the Patidar vote is divided between AAP and BJP because of their candidates, Congress will stand. Now it has to be seen whether Italia will reverse the maths of BJP on this seat.
In the 2017 elections, out of 2.77 lakh voters in Katargam, 1.25 lakh voted for Vinod Mordiya, while Congress’s Jignesh Jiwani got only 46,157 votes.
Katargam is one of the 16 seats in Surat. The BJP had won 15 of them in 2017, while the Congress had won only one.
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