Palanpur: Banaskantha is the only Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat where both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition Congress have fielded women candidates.
Two-term MLA Geniben Thakor of the Congress will take on BJP's Rekha Chaudhary, an engineering professor making her poll debut, in the upcoming parliamentary polls.
Thakor defeated the then Gujarat minister and senior BJP leader Shankar Chaudhary in the 2017 assembly polls and Swarupji Thakor of the saffron party in 2022.
Known for advocacy of women's rights, Thakor had in 2020 said "rapists must be burnt alive rather than being handed over to police," after the alleged rape of a 14-month-old girl in Gujarat.
She was one of the 17 Congress candidates who managed to bag seats in the 2022 Gujarat assembly polls, which were won by the BJP with a record mandate.
Rekha Chaudhary's grandfather Galbabhai Chaudhary founded the Banas Dairy, which procures milk from 4.5 lakh farmers every day, an initiative which has opened doors of earning livelihood for lakhs of people in the district where many areas have been struggling with water scarcity.
Her husband Hitesh Chaudhary is a BJP office-bearer.
In her campaign speeches, Rekha Chaudhary has been saying her candidature has the support of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She has been highlighting the Ram temple construction in Ayodhya and the Centre's decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
"I am Modi saheb's candidate under whose leadership the Ram Temple was constructed, fulfilling the dreams of lakhs of people. My opponent is Rahul Gandhi's candidate. She is contesting on the basis of caste, whereas I am here to serve people," the BJP nominee said during a campaign rally in Lakhani taluka of Banaskantha recently.
She also also been highlighting welfare schemes of the Modi government, especially those for women.
Thakor, on the other hand, has said her fight is for the issues faced by citizens and has promised to resolve them after reaching Delhi as an MP.
Thakor recently took a jibe at Rekha Chaudhary saying, "The BJP talks about being a cadre-based party but fields candidates who are not active workers."
The Congress leader claimed her campaign expenditure is being supported by the money collected through crowdfunding.
"People who understand that I fight for them are always ready to support me financially and in every other way to help me win. The public understands I have nothing but honesty to offer them," she told reporters recently.
When it comes to the caste mathematics, Thakor seems to have an upper hand since the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, to which she belongs, has around four lakh voters in the constituency.
Rekha Chaudhary is also from the OBC category but her community's count is about half of that of Thakor's in Banaskantha.
The BJP fielded candidates from the Chaudhary community since 2004, which reportedly has not gone down well with the dominant Thakurs, local political observers claim.
BJP's Haribhai Chaudhary lost in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Banaskantha, before winning a bypoll in 2013 and then retaining the seat in the 2014 parliamentary election.
In 2019, the BJP fielded Parbat Patel, also from the Chaudhary community, who defeated Congress' Parthi Bhatol by a margin of 3.68 lakh votes.
The BJP's campaign is focused on achievements of the government under PM Modi's leadership, the Ram temple construction and abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.
But, according to some locals, Banaskantha district, which is bordering Rajasthan and Pakistan, has been facing severe water woes.
Mavji Loh, taluka president of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh in Palanpur, claimed the state government has launched a scheme to fill lakes with the Narmada canal water to woo electors ahead of the election but the result of the effort will only be known after two years.
The effort to bring the Narmada canal water was much publicised by the BJP government but its overall impact has not been significant and covers just 5-7 per cent of the district, he further claimed.
"Groundwater is not easy to fetch due to the layers of rocks, making farmers depend on rain water for cultivation. Some parts of the district, especially the catchment areas of Dantiwada, Sipu and Mokeshwar dams are in a better position compared to other parts of the district. For another 5-7 per cent area of the district, the Narmada canal water brings some relief," Loh said.
Water scarcity in a large part of the district is a harsh reality and even the cattle feed has to be bought from other places, which impacts the milk trade, he claimed.
However, Mevji Desai, the BJP legislator from Dhanera seat in Banaskantha district, said the government has been taking steps to address the problem and has given an in-principle approval for a Rs 411 crore project to fill village lakes in his assembly segment with the Narmada canal water through a pipeline.
Elections to all the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on May 7 and votes will be counted on June 4.
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