Regional political outfits and the parties considered to be insignificant in Gujarat seem to have played a decisive role in shaping the results for the Congress and the BJP in the just–concluded Lok Sabha elections in the state.

A result-sheet containing party-wise performance released by the Election Commission reveals that had these regional and other outfits not split the vote share of the two mainstream parties, the BJP and the Congress could have easily won a few more seats.

The data suggests that in absence of the vote share grabbed by small parties, the BJP could possibly have won in six more constituencies of Banaskantha, Patan, Surendranagar, Rajkot, Dahod and Valsad. On the other hand, these outfits caused damage to the Congress in at least five constituencies of Sabarkantha, Bhavnagar, the Panchmahals, Chhota-Udepur and Bharuch.

In Banaskantha, while Mayawati’s BSP candidate Chetan Solanki polled a little over 11,000 votes, BJP’s Haribhai Chaudhary lost in this north Gujarat constituency by 10,000 votes. Similarly in Patan, BJP’s Bhavsinh Rathod, who lost by 18,000 votes, could have won the seat, as MJP candidate N P Patel mustered 18,554 votes.

BJP nominee Lalji Mer lost in Surendranagar by 5,000 votes. Here again, the BSP candidate who polled 31,000 votes played a spoilsport for the saffron party.

In Rajkot, considered to be a saffron bastion, BJP’s Kiran Bhalodia was defeated by Congress’ Kunvarji Bavaliya by a margin of 15,000 votes — the chunk claimed together by BSP and MJP.

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