The town is the taluka headquarter of Gir-Somnath district, 50km down a terrible highway from the district headquarters at Veraval. This is the stomping ground of BJP's Junagadh Ex-MP, Dinu Bogha Solanki. Dinubha, who became the BJP MP from Junagadh in 2009, was elected Kodinar MLA in 1998, 2002 and 2007.
Solanki stands accused of masterminding the slaying of RTI activist Amit Jethava, who was shot dead outside the Gujarat high court on July 20, 2010, soon after he had filed a PIL objecting to widespread illegal mining within the protected Gir forest.
Interestingly, Jethava had contested the 2007 elections against Dinubha as an independent and polled barely 1.5% of valid votes.
The Gujarat high court had recently ordered a complete retrial in the murder case, as an unprecedented number of witnesses had turned hostile, with several plainly complaining that Dinubha was pressurizing them.
The Supreme Court later decreed that only 26 key witnesses be re-examined, rather than conduct a complete retrial. Dinubha is currently in jail, having surrendered to a CBI court on November 6.
President of the Samudri Shramik Surakshan Sangh (association for protection of maritime workers) Balubhai Socha says, "This region around Kodinar is fully at the mercy of Dinubha. Limestone mining and transport businesses are firmly in his control. He is from the Karadia Rajput community, which makes up about 42,000 of the Kodinar seat's 1.84 lakh voters. There are 48,000 Kolis, 30,000 Dalits, 15,000 Muslims and other smaller groups here.
"Dinubha became a member of the taluka panchayat in 1982 and his rise has been unstoppable ever since the Ambuja cement factory came to this area. As the assembly seat became reserved for SCs, Jethalal Solanki became the MLA. He won in 2012 by around 8,000 votes. He was originally in the Dinu Bogha faction of the BJP but they later parted ways. The nagarpalika and taluka panchayat are both with the BJP since 1995."
Jethalal, who was a parliamentary secretary, was denied the BJP ticket for 2017 and resigned from the party on November 18, just before the BJP declared its candidate. The BJP Kodinar ticket has gone to Rambhai Vadher while Congress has fielded Mohan Vala. Jethalal had defeated Vala by 8,477 votes in 2012.
Shiva Solanki, Dinubha's nephew and a co-accused in the Amit Jethava murder case, is the current president of Kodinar municipality.
Shiva says, "We will win this seat as a gift for Dinubha. We have an army of 10,000 volunteers for the campaign. The seat can't go to a Karadia Rajput because it is reserved for SCs. Dinubha has anyway worked for all sections of society."
Shiva was elected to the municipality on a BJP ticket, but the city BJP unit was split due to Dinubha and Jethalal falling out. The clout of the Dinubha faction can be made out from the fact that Shiva rules the Kodinar municipality with the support of 27 independents, all of whom defeated BJP's nominees.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/caught-between-the-don-and-the-deep-sea/articleshow/61745865.cms
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