MEN OF CRIMINAL RECORD CONTEST IN PORBANDAR

Call it a quirk of fate or political inevitability of times, but main contestants in the fray from the very birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi in Gujarat have a string of criminal cases against them and are leaving no stone unturned to ensure each other's defeat in polls. Sitting BJP MP Vitthal Radadia is locked in a fierce contest with NCP candidate Kandhal Jadeja, son of "godmother" late Santokben Jadeja who once headed an underworld enterprise. Both Radadia and Jadeja, who is the sitting NCP MLA from Kutiyana constituency, have a number of cases pending against them including those of serious crimes. Radadia had won the seat on Congress ticket in 2009, but switched his loyalty to BJP ahead of the 2012 Assembly elections. He was re-elected as an MP in the bypoll held subsequently. Radadia had hit the headlines when he pointed a gun at employees of a toll booth when asked to pay the road tax, when he was a Congress MP. The seat went to NCP as part of arrangement between the alliance partners Congress and NCP. Of the total 15.23 lakh voters in this constituency, 4.20 lakh are Patel votes, while 1.25 lakh voters belonged to Mer community. While Radadia is a Patel, Jadeja belonged to Mer community. To undercut Jadeja's influence in his community, BJP has made their sitting MLA from Porbandar Babu Bokhiria the incharge of the seat, who is considered to be another strongman in that area. Bokhiria was convicted by a court in a land mining case but a higher court has stayed the order of the lower court. This leaves Jadeja in fight against virtually two candidates--the other being Bokhiria. Out of the seven assembly segments, Porbandar, Kutiyana and Manavadar have decisive Mer population, while seats like Gondal, Jetpur, Dhoraji and Keshod have sizable population of Patels.