Less than two months after a bridge collapsed in Gujarat’s Morbi town, the BJP has won the assembly seat – and two others that fall in the district – despite opposition questions over alleged neglect.
In Morbi segment, it helped that the BJP replaced the sitting MLA with former MLA Kantilal Amritiya, who saved many lives in an act of selfless courage by jumping into the river after a bridge collapsed.
Such was the scale of the tragedy – more than 40 children were among the dead – the issue gained national prominence, as it was in the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had also visited Morbi. Courts have since reprimanded local authorities for alleged irregularities in the awarding of repair contracts.
But, people at the grassroots level had so much faith in the BJP that it not only won the Morbi seat, that too with a huge margin, but also the other two assembly constituencies of the district, Tankara and Wankaner.
The Congress had won all three in the 2017 assembly elections. Morbi MLA Brijesh Merja later resigned and won the 2020 bypoll for the BJP. He was denied a BJP ticket this time in favor of “Morbi Hero” Amritiya, who has won five assembly elections in the past.
The region is now dominated by the BJP – like the rest of the state after today’s record win – as the Kutch Lok Sabha constituency, which includes Morbi, already has a BJP MP.
Today’s margin of victory shows how complete the dominance is.
In the Morbi segment, Amritiya won with a margin of over 50,000, garnering nearly 60 per cent votes. His nearest rival Jerajbhai Patel of the Congress got less than half that.
The BJP winner in Wankaner, Jitendra Somani, won by a 20,000-odd margin, nearly 10 per cent more votes than Congress MLA Mohd Javed Peerzada.
In Tankara, the margin was not that big but still around 10,000 votes as BJP’s Durlabh Detharia defeated INC MLA Lalit Kagathara.
As far as the tragedy is concerned, the state and central governments have so far given Rs 4 lakh each to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. The courts have said that more needs to be given.
On the investigation front, the state has constituted a committee and there has been some pressure to hold municipal officials and the top management of contractor firm Oreva Group accountable. So far nine people have been arrested, mostly employees of the company.
Municipal officials have said that Oreva reopened the bridge without its permission, four days before its collapse on 26 October. The colonial-era suspension bridge reportedly remained closed for renovations for seven months before reopening ahead of schedule.
read all latest politics news Here