Though the BJP fell short of one seat from their convincing claim to repeat the performance of the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning 26 out of 26 seats, it has managed to retain both seats, falling in the Ahmedabad constituency once again. Hasmukh Patel of the BJP defeated Himmatsinh Patel of Congress in Ahmedabad East with a massive 4 lakh plus lead. While Hasmukh Patel received 770459 votes, Himmatsinh Patel got only 303713 votes.
Hasmukh Patel is a popular MLA from the Amraiwadi assembly segment of the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha constituency, has won the seat in 2012, 2017, 2019, and in the 2022 Gujarat assembly elections,. Hasmukh Patel defeated a promising Congress candidate, Dharmendra Patel, by 43,272 votes. Incidentally, Dharmendra Patel, popularly called by his nickname “Dhambhai,” joined the BJP later.
Himmatsinh Patel, a former mayor of Ahmedabad and a former Ahmedabad Congress President, could not defend his seat in the neighbouring Bapunagar constituency from Dinesh Kushwaha of the BJP who won by a margin of 12,070 votes in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Ahmedabad East was represented by actor Paresh Raval in 2014. The defeat of Himmatsinh Patel in 2024 is second after his defeat in 2014 by Paresh Raval. Raval excused himself from being repeated in 2019.
BJP stalwart Harin Pathak used to represent the seat from 2009 to 2014. He was a trusted associate of Vajpayee and Advani. Earlier, Harin Pathak was MP continuously from 1989 until 2009 in the constituency, which was later abolished to make way for the new constituency of Ahmedabad West. With the purge that followed the herald of the Modi era, Harin Pathak was a casualty, along with several of the old world ilk.
Ahmedabad West, a seat reserved for SC candidates, saw Dr. Kirit Solanki of BJP win consecutively in 2009, 2014, and 2019. One of the strongest constituencies for the BJP, Ahmedabad West, had a fight between Dinesh Makwana, a young politician and former Deputy Mayor of the city, and Bharat Makwana, the son of the former union minister in the Indira Gandhi cabinet, Yogendra Makwana.
Dinesh Makwana, a surprise choice by the BJP, was taken out of cold storage, in a typical rabbit-out-of-the-hat spectacle that Narendra Modi specialises in. To his credit, after his tenure as deputy mayor ended, Dinesh Makwana, in the true BJP rulebook for dedicated workers, kept a low profile and continued working away from the public glare.
Dinesh Makwana trounced Bharat Makwana by a margin of 2,86,437 in a fight that was heavily lopsided in his favour. The legacy of Yogendra Makwana is a long-lost memory of a very distant past, capable of igniting some fervour in the minds of only a handful of Congressmen. Bharat Makwana was not expected to do any wonders. His candidature only underlined the fact that Congress can garner as many as 33% of votes even in it’s worst phase, irrespective of whether a candidate is Raju Parmar in 2019 or Bharat Makwana in 2024. It is another matter that the percentage of votes received by a Congress candidate has slipped by 8% since Shailesh Parmar in 2009.
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