Gujarat polls: Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani retains Vadgam for Congress with slim margin

Firebrand Dalit leader and sitting Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani on Thursday retained his Vadgam Assembly seat after trailing in the initial rounds of vote counting. Mevani got 93,848 votes and defeated his nearest rival, the BJP's Manibhai Vaghela who polled 89,052 votes.

The margin of victory was 4,928 votes. Mevani had won from Vadgam, a constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes, in 2017 as an independent supported by the Congress. Vaghela quit the Congress and joined the BJP after he was denied ticket in 2017. He had held the Vadgam seat from 2012 to 2017.

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Muslim voters, numbering around 90,000, account for a third of Vadgam’s 2.94 lakh electorate and play a decisive role. The constituency has about 44,000 Dalit voters and 15,000 Rajputs. The rest belong to mostly OBC communities. Besides Vaghela, Mevani also faced Aam Aadmi Party's Dalpat Bhatia and AIMIM's Kalpesh Sundhia in the election.