Wife of sitting Congress legislator Iqbal Patel from Vagra in Bharuch district, Rasheedaben was among the few Congress MLAs who were elected in December 2002 assembly polls from Vagra.

One of the reasons for the party selecting Rasheedaben as a candidate for Bharuch seat is her and her husband’s popularity in the district which is second only to that of Ahmed Patel, the political advisor to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Her candidature will also satisfy to a large extent the demand of the party’s minority community leaders to allot at least 10 per cent of the seats in assembly as well as Lok Sabha polls to candidates from minority community.

Rasheedaben and her family had in fact been representing Vagra seat in the state assembly for the last three terms. In 1997 assembly elections also Iqbal Patel had won the Vagra seat on Congress ticket and retained it in December 2007 assembly polls as well.

Though the party is yet to formally declare the name of Rasheedaben from Bharuch, she and her husband have already started a campaign to mobilise the voters in their favour.

Asked if the party has given any assurance to field Rasheedaben from Bharuch, Iqbal Patel said the party had agreed to field her and that was why they had started public contact programmes in the constituency.

On Thursday morning, the couple held a public meeting at Ikhar, the native place of cricketer Munaf Patel.

However, Bharuch, which had been a Congress bastion and elected Ahmed Patel thrice to Lok Sabha, has gone to BJP in the last three terms. Congress candidates Amarsinh Vasava, Iqbal Kakuji and Muhammed Fansiwala were defeated by BJP candidates in 1996, 1999 and 2004 general elections.

With electorate strength of 13 lakh, the seat is dominated by adivasis as they form the single largest group of voters in four blocks of Dediapada, Sagbara, Walia and Jhagadia out of 12 blocks in this Lok Sabha constituency. This has been giving advantage to BJP’s Mansukh Vasava, a tribal, who has been winning the seat for the last two terms.

However, Congress hopes to improve its performance this time on the fact that four of the assembly seats falling within this Lok Sabha constituency returned Congress legislators in December 2007 assembly elections.