Gujarat Elections 2017 Key Constituency: Rajkot West It is Jain Vaniya CM versus a rich Brahmin in the Patel heartland By Deepak Parvatiyar* Considered a Bharatiya Janata Party bastion, Rajkot West is the biggest constituency within the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Having given three chief ministers to the state – Keshubhai Patel, Narendra Modi and the present CM Vijay Rupani, this wealthy urban seat is now better known as the BJP’s “CM seat”. Rupani had won the by elections here in 2014 when Vajubhai Vala, the incumbent speaker of Gujarat Legislative Assembly, resigned as the MLA from Rajkot West as he was appointed as the governor of Karnataka. Rupani had then won by a comfortable margin of 23,740 votes, securing 81,092 votes as against his nearest Congress Party rival Jayanti Kalaria’s 57,352 votes. This time though, he faces some anxious time here in face of the almost two-year old Patidar (Patel) agitation over reservation. The challenge before him is to win
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