New Delhi: In Mahatma Gandhi’s birthplace Porbandar, Kandhalbhai Jadeja, son of Santokben Jadeja, the undisputed mafia queen of the region, has scored a hat trick from the Kutiyana seat. This is also the first time that the Samajwadi Party, from which Jadeja contested, opened its account in Gujarat.
Kutiyana is part of the Porbandar Lok Sabha seat.
Kandhalbhai, who contested on a Samajwadi Party ticket after being denied one by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won by a margin of 26,702 votes. Jadeja secured 60,744 votes against BJP’s Dheliben Odedara who got 34,032 votes as per the Election Commission of India (ECI) figures.
Odedara has been chairman of the Kutiyana Municipal Corporation for the last 27 years and was also considered close to Santokben.
Kandhalbhai belongs to the Mer community. He fought the last two elections in 2012 and 2017 from Kutiyana on an NCP ticket and won.
The Congress’s Nathabhai Bhurabhai Odedara got 8841 votes, much behind Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Bhimabhai Makwana who is in third place securing 19,557 votes.
Also Read: Gang wars to battle of ballots — in Porbandar, mafia descendants seek votes, promise development
Gang wars and legacies
Porbandar became notorious as the ‘Chicago of Gujarat’ in the late 1960s up to the mid-’90s, when gang wars made frequent headlines and mafia dons ruled the roost.
From Santokben Jadeja from Kutiyana to gangsters of the likes of Iku Gagan, Naren Sudha and Bhima Dula Odedara — living in Porbandar at that time was a nightmare.
Santokben, who inspired the 1999 Shabana Azmi film Godmother, was also an MLA from Kutiyana. She died in 2011. Now, her son Kandhalbhai has taken over her legacy, both in politics and crime — he has multiple criminal charges including murder registered against him.
The Porbandar assembly constituency too saw an interesting contest between two arch rivals — BJP’s Babubhai Bokhiria and Congress’s Arjun Modhwadia. It was a close contest with Congress’ Modhwadia winning by a margin of 8181 votes. Modhwadia secured 82,056 votes against Bokhiriya’s 73,875 votes as per the ECI figures.
Though both the BJP and Congress candidates do not have a criminal background, Bokhiria is a relative of gangster Bhima Dula Odedara, who is currently serving life imprisonment in a double murder case.
Bokhiria, who was a cabinet minister in the Gujarat government, has won from the Porbandar seat four times (1995, 1998, 2012, 2017) while Modhwadia has won twice (2002, 2007) from the seat.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
Also Read: High costs, low catch & Pakistan, not polls — what’s on top of mind for Porbandar fishermen