Dang: Historic victory of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in tribal populated Dang assembly seat with margin of around 60,000 votes is not a miracle but the result of sustained, sincere and skillful efforts of minister Ganpat Vasava, Purnesh Modi, Ashok Dhorajia among others under the guidance of State party chief CR Patil.

Vasava was incharge of both Dang and Kaprada seats in South Gujarat. Both seats are reserved for tribal candidates. Both seats were previously with Congress but lost by BJP with narrow margins.

Vasava camped in Dang and Kaprada and started clearing all pending local issues one-by-one. The issues would be as small as mobile tower connectivity, jungle road repairing, distribution of plots for tribal groups, forest land rights etc.

One eye-catching job done ahead of the by-polls was appointment of international athlete Sarita Gaekwad as DySP (Deputy Superintendent of Police). Sarita is a tribal woman from Dang from extremely humble background.

Election day micro-planning was another major task. As many as 20,000 page pramukhs were readied. 100 selected party workers were roped in from Navsari, Surat and Tapi(for pre-poll tasks). 450 vehicles were arranged for smooth transportation of voters to polling stations. 12,000 voters were offered mobility assistance on polling day.

Congress had fielded a Christian candidate Suryakant Gavit to benefit from large number (around 45,000) of converted Christian tribals in Dang. However BJP could win large number of Christian and Muslim votes also through the works done and linkages established. There were complains regarding selection of Gavit as candidate within Congress.

Maximum number of group meetings was also a key part of campaign that paid off. Party candidate Vijay Patel has been MLA of Dang in the past. His personal rapport also played a role. DeshGujarat