Gujarat Elections 2017: BJP Wins Clash of Titans in Porbandar

Congress’ Arjun Modhwadia lost to old political rival Babu Bokhiria in the port city.

BJP’s Babu Bokhiria is greeted by supporters.

(Photo Courtesy: Nimesh Gondaliya)

Five hours into counting, the Election Commission declared the first result of the Gujarat Assembly election. Bharatiya Janata Party’s Babu Bokhiria defeated old political rival Arjun Modhwadia of the Congress by a narrow margin of 1,855 votes.

This was the third face-off between between the senior leaders, who have now both won two consecutive terms. Arjun Modhwadia retained the seat between 2002 and 2012. In 2012, Bokhiria unseated Modhwadia.

Porbandar was considered a safe seat for the BJP till Rahul Gandhi made a brief stop at the port city and held a low-key interaction with members from the fishing community, who are believed to be unhappy with the lack of delivery from the state government.

The Congress even promised to increase quota for subsidised kerosene and a separate fisheries ministry, but it wasn’t enough to swing the seat in its favour.

The BJP government in the state, in which Bokhiria served as the Water Resources and Agriculture Minister, had announced a special Diwali package for the fishing community, which included kerosene subsidy worth Rs 189 crore. Bokhiria also claimed to have ushered in developmental projects worth Rs 500 crore in Mahatma Gandhi’s birthplace.

Porbandar has a total population of 3,84,660, as per the 2011 Census – out of which 1,97,622 are males and 1,87,038 are females. The constituency had 217 polling stations and went to polls in the first phase on 9 December.

As per the Election Commission, the final voter turnout stood at 67.4 percent, which is well below 71.32 percent voter turnout in 2012.

Modhwadia had lodged a complaint with the Election Commission alleging three electronic voting machines (EVM) were connected to a Bluetooth device. The Election Commission, had, however, refuted the claim.