Valsad Lok Sabha Constituency
Constituency number: 26
Total electors: 15,12,061
Female electors: 7,36,988
Male electors: 7,75,073
Reserved: Yes. For Scheduled Tribes.
Delimited: Yes. It was earlier known as Bulsar. Gandevi (ST) Assembly seat went to Navsari parliamentary constituency.
Assembly constituencies: Dangs (ST), Vansda (ST), Dharampur (ST), Valsad, Pardi, Kaprada (ST), Umbergaon (ST).
Results in last four Lok Sabha elections: In 1999, BJP’s Manibhai Ramjibhai Chaudhari won the seat but lost it to Kishanbhai Veshtabhai Patel of the Congress in 2004, who retained it till 2014. In 2014, he forfeited the seat to BJP’s KC Patel. This Lok Sabha constituency is a closely watched one, as it is believed that the party which wins the seat generally comes to power at the Centre.
Demographics: The constituency covers the entire Valsad and Dangs districts and a part of Navsari district. A total of 94 percent of the Dangs district comprises scheduled tribes while in the tribal population in Valsad district is close to 55 percent. One of the poorest districts in the country, Dangs is a beneficiary under the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme.