Lok Sabha Election 2019, Dadra and Nagar Haveli profile: BJP holds on to Union Territory seat but Congress poses major challenge

Dadra and Nagar Haveli has a lone Lok Sabha constituency and the Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Patel Natubhai Gomanbhai is the sitting MP from here. Spread over 491 square kilometres and landlocked between Gujarat in the north and Maharashtra in the south, Dadra and Nagar Haveli was liberated from the Portuguese in 1954. While the culture in the Union Territory is influenced by the Portuguese, the Census data of 2011 states that more than half of the population belongs to Scheduled Tribes, which is why the seat is reserved for ST. The major tribes inhabiting the area are Varlies, Kokana, Dhodia and Dublas. While the BJP has held the seat twice consecutively, it faces threat from Congress leader Delkar Mohanbhai Sanjibhai. The tribal leader has been elected MP six times. He was also one of the founders of the Bharatiya Navshakti Party but has since joined both the BJP and Congress. While in the 1991 and 1996 elections, he won the MP seats on a Congress ticket, he quit Congress to join BJP in 1998. A year later, he contested General Elections as an independent candidate. In 2009, he joined the Congress again. While there were rumours of him joining the BJP again ahead of the 2014 polls, the tribal leader is likely to stick to Congress. Vocal about the problems of the tribals working in factories of Silvassa, Delkar poses a great challenge to incumbent Patel. Dadra and Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha Constituency Constituency number: 1 Total electors: 1,96,577 (2014 estimates) Female electors: 90,386 Male electors: 1,06,191 [caption id=“attachment_6372081” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  As per the Census of 2011, Dadra and Nagar Haveli has a population of 3,43,709, which is the third lowest among States/UTs of India. Image credit Sharada Prasad CS/Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Reserved: Yes. For Scheduled Tribes. Delimited: No Assembly Constituencies: Dadra and Nagar Haveli Results in last four elections: In 1999, independent candidate Delkar Mohanbhai Sanjibhai won the election. Delkar was re-elected again in 2004 from Bharatiya Navshakti Party, which he set up. Patel Nanubhai Gomanbhai from the BJP was elected MP from the Union Territory in the 2009 elections. Gomanbhai was re-elected as a BJP candidate in 2014 as well. Demographics: As per the Census of 2011, Dadra and Nagar Haveli has a population of 3,43,709, which is the third lowest among States/UTs of India. More than half (51.95 percent) of the population belongs to Scheduled Tribes and 46.72 percent live in urban areas. Business and economy of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are mainly based on agriculture and the manufacturing industries. Since a large section of the Union Territory is covered with forests, forestry is also an important occupational source for the people.