Morbi (Gujarat): Morbi disaster has hardly had any effect on BJP's Gujarat rollercoaster as the saffron party candidate Kantilal Amrutiya has won the Assembly polls in the ceramic town where a suspense bridge collapsed in October killing 140 people.
BJP was subjected to severe criticism and political pundits said its effect would show in the Assembly polls, however, that was hardly the case as Kantilal Amrutiya won with a lead of over 10,000 votes over Congress’ Jayantilal Patel. AAP’s Pankaj Kantilal Rasariya was at a distant third with 2577 votes.
One could also say that Amrutiya's heroics during the disaster made him the poll hero as well. The former MLA saved several lives during the deadly bridge collapse with videos showing Amrutiya rescuing people who had fallen into the river. Amrutiya has won five times --1995, 1998, 2002, 2007 and 2012 -- from Morbi though he was not fielded by the BJP in 2017.
The bridge tragedy at Morbi town left over 140 people, including children, dead and left the nation shocked and overwhelmed. The deaths occurred due to the collapse of the suspension bridge that had recently been opened for public use. Among those killed were 12 relatives of Rajkot Lok Sabha member Mohan Kundariya.
Following the tragedy, the Congress alleged that the incident highlighted something which was a degraded form of cronyism in which precedence was given to sheer profiteering, everything else was compromised, and people's lives were sacrificed.
The bridge had been reopened to the public on October 26, just five days earlier, after six months of extensive repairs and renovations. A total of Rs 2 crore was spent on renovations. The bridge was reopened after a private inaugural event but was yet to receive the municipality's "fitness certificate," a civic official said.
BJP heading for a record win
With the early trends in all 182 seats of Gujarat Assembly coming in, the ruling BJP was seen inching towards an all-time high record of 149 seats. As per the latest trends, the party was leading in 149 seats, the number of seats which the Congress had won in the 1985 election under the leadership of Madhavsinh Solanki, in what remains a record till date.
The BJP was all set for a sweeping victory for the seventh term in a state where it has not lost an election since 1995. The Congress was ahead in 19 seats and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 9, according to the first trends of all the seats in the state Assembly as reported by the Election Commission.
The others were leading in five seats, including a candidate of the Samajwadi Party in Kutiyana seat of Porbandar district and four independents in Dhanera, Vaghodia, Santrampur and Deesa. After registering initial gains, the Congress and AAP slipped while the BJP continued to improve its tally to reach the tally of 149.
A number of sitting BJP MLAs were among those leading in the initial trends. Party leaders like Jitu Vaghani, Purnesh Modi, Kanubhai Desai and Hardik Patel were among those ahead of their rivals.
AAP's chief ministerial candidate Isudan Gadhvi was leading in Khambhalia. The party's candidates were also leading in Jamjodhpur, Dediapada, Dhari, Vyara, Botad, Bhiloda, Gariadhar and Limbayat.
