Daman and Diu Election 2019: It's BJP vs Congress in an unpredictable contest
Daman and Diu is the second largest Union Territory constituency after Lakshadweep in terms of the number of electors.
Daman: Daman and Diu, a Union Territory (UT) in West India, is divided into two separate areas by the Arabian Sea. The constituency went to polls on April 23 in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections. It is the second largest Union Territory constituency after Lakshadweep in terms of the number of electors. Lalubhai Patel of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) contested against Ketan Patel of the Congress.
The elections to the constituency have always seen a poll battle between the BJP and the Congress. It came into existence in 1987 and has been won by the Congress and the BJP four times each, apart from 1989 when an independent candidate won the election from here. Lalubhai Patel, a veteran politician from the UT, had been elected to the 15th Lok Sabha in 2009 from Daman and Diu constituency. Patel was re-elected in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from the same constituency.
Ketal Patel is the son of former parliamentarian Dahyabhai Patel. Ketan was the first president of the National Students' Union of India and the Indian Youth Congress. He was fielded by the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
In 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Lalubhai Patel of the BJP outperformed Ketan Patel of the Congress by a margin of 9,222 or 10.6 per cent votes. The recorded voter turnout in the region was 78 per cent.
The results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be declared on May 23. As per the census 2011, the UT has a population of 2,42,853, with the literacy rate of 77.65 per cent.