Gujarat elections 2017: He who claims Saurashtra, Kutch, wins Gujarat

The battle for the 54 Assembly seats in Saurashtra and Kutch regions will have a significant bearing on the final outcome in the state polls. The Congress is looking for gains in the six seats in Kutch, with the BJP facing a stiff challenge to overcome anti-incumbency sentiments over issues such as complaints of shortage of water supply.

What could also work in favour of the Congress, which has traditionally relied on its KHAM formula – (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim)- is that it could get a major chunk of the Muslim votes in Kutch. Four of the six seats – Abdasa, Anjar, Mandvi and the district headquarters Bhuj — have a sizeable population of Muslim voters.

In Bhuj, where Muslims account for around a third of the voters, Congress has once again opted for a Muslim candidate, Adam B Chaki. In the 2012 polls, the party fielded Amirali Hajihushen Lodhiya, who lost out by around 9,000 votes to BJP’s Dr Nimaben Acharya.

Chaki, a known face in the area, has been in the news earlier for filing several PILs against the state government in the High Court.

One such PIL had opposed the move by the state government to enter into an …read more